Starting Over
by Fallinglikestars
Summary: Living in NYC with her family and hiding her powers was working fine for Kira, until a friend of hers got greedy and ruined it all. Now what's going to happen when she's shipped off to Sky High to start her sophomore year? LashOC
1. The Beginning

First story. Tell me what you think? It doesn't matter if it's good or bad. Oh, and the English translation of the Cantonese will be in italics next to it.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or any of its characters: Disney does. All non-cannon characters are mine though. **

* * *

It wasn't supposed to go down the way it did. We don't usually go after cars with people in them. It's to risky. To personal. I hate jacking cars as it is and the thought of having to hurt someone just to get a few bucks was repulsive. Johnny knew that, but he also knew I'm not one to argue with the man with the gun. 

I should probably start at the beginning. It was during sixth grade that I got my powers.

Yeah I'm a super. Woo. Hoo.

Anyway, I couldn't tell my parents about what I could do. Dad would always manage to bring it up every few months or so, but I would just smile and shake my head. Don't get me wrong, they would have loved it. They would have thrown me a freaking party before shipping me off to some super school, filled with kids who I didn't know, that was no where near my home. You could see my problem. So I hid my powers from them, and practiced in my room or wherever no one was watching. I got pretty good too. Unfortunately, stealth wasn't a friend of mine.

One day I was at Central Park with my best friend Mellie. She was the only one who I told about my powers, cause I could tell her anything. She was just one of those rare, rare girls who could keep a secret. Mellie even knew my dad was the Ghost. Anyway we were playing tricks on the tourists roaming throughout the park. I'd change a shoe color here, a word or two on a couple shirts there, anything to give us a good laugh. I even added a gray streak to some uppity girl's hair.

We were celebrating our victories with ice cream when Mellie stopped me and dragged me off the path.

"Get a look at those two! Noses smooshed in their maps, fanny packs, 'I heart NY' t-shirts! Man we gotta get them!" Mellie's mouth was practically foaming with excitement.

"Okay, okay! Follow me." I said. We ditched our ice cream in a nearby trash can before I led her into the bushes behind the couple. She kept watch as I crawled under their bench. I rested my finger tips on the woman's right black pump, and watched as it turned into a hideous shade of puke green with orange polka dots. I did the man's left loafer next, and smiled as it went from brown to pink.

I started to inch my way out from under the bench when I saw him. He was staring right at me, with this weird look on his face. I pretended not to notice him and kept going until I was all the way out. "Mellie, run!" I hissed. We took off running toward our apartment building, and made it out to the street before Mellie stopped me.

"What happened? I didn't get to see it." She whined.

"Mei shen me." _Nothing._

* * *

Later that night he cornered me outside our apartment. Of all the people to catch me, it had to be the kid who lived 4 doors down. His name was Johnny, and he was a grade above me.

"How'd you do it?"

"Do what?" I asked as I dug in my bag for my key.

"The shoes. Their colors. Can you do that with anything?"

"Do what?"

His hand wrapped around my shoulder, and he twisted me around to face him. "You know what I'm talking about Kira. Come on, can't you just tell me? I won't let anyone else know you're a freak."

"I'm not a freak! I'm a super."

"So you admit it. Your rents know?" He let go of me, and crossed his arms.

"Yes." I hated being a horrible liar.

"Oooh, so you got yourself a little secret huh? Well, don't worry, I'll keep your secret...if you help me out."

"With what?"

"Andre and the guys have started their own little car business. But it would be so much," He paused, "safer... if you came along to help make the cars look a bit different."

"You want me to go car jacking with you and your stupid little gang? No freaking way. Leave me out of this."

"I'm afraid that is not an option. I already told Andre, and he would be quite unhappy if you said no. He might even plan a visit with your family."

Johnny laughed as my body filled with complete and utter horror. Andre was the leader of their gang. He was older, about 25 or so, and he never left home without his gun...except for that 3 year stint he had at Rikers. Johnny stuck his hand out, waiting. I sighed, and shook his hand, taking the opportunity to turn his hair a lovely shade of blue.

"Fine."

* * *

After three years and roughly 150 cars, I'd become quite good at what I did. I didn't mind it much anymore. They couldn't take the cars without me, so I was able to at least make sure no one got hurt. Andre got his chop shop and I made sure no one died. It was fine by me. They even gave me some money every once in a while when we got a good haul.

It was always me and Johnny jacking the cars. The rest of them didn't know how it was done, of course. They didn't know I existed. That was part of my terms. Only Andre, Johnny, Hector and I knew. Hector used to take me before Johnny was old enough to not get automatically picked up by the cops. But on our last job Hector took a bullet to the leg from a rival gang, and has been off the runs ever since. I liked it better that way though. Even though he knew English, Hector always talked in Spanish. Always.

Did I mention that I don't speak Spanish?

After that Hector just hocked the cars down in Jersey at used car lots. The good ones anyway. The crappier ones were stripped for parts.

Anyway, I didn't like going out anymore. Johnny was getting greedy. We usually only went for low-key cars, but recently, once Johnny picked out a car, he wouldn't let it go. It didn't matter if he picked a beaten up 71' Plymouth, or a brand new Lexus. He would make us jack it, no matter what the risk. It pissed me off. But I couldn't do a thing. Last year Johnny got his first gun. He never went anywhere without it, and he doesn't have any problem using it. He was getting to be Andre Jr.

That day started off as it usually did. The summer heat was unbearable, so I spent the afternoon tucked away in my room with the fan on full blast. Mellie sat on my bed, flipping through a tattoo magazine as she watched me practice. She loved the free makeovers I was able to give her. Today she opted for deep chocolate hair, opposed to the brownish blonde she usually sported.

"Are you going to pick a tattoo or not?" I asked as I played with a ball of light. The light was a new thing that I had been working on in secret for a few months, something I kept just between Mellie and me. Johnny and Andre didn't need to know that I was anything more then the color chick. The status quo was working, and I planned on keeping it that way. I separated the ball into a rainbow of different swirls, and sent them flying around the room while I waited for Mellie's answer.

"I got one!" She exclaimed as she leapt off the bed and shoved the magazine in my face. "The fairy!" I looked at the picture she showed, and my jaw dropped.

"Jesus, Mellie, could you have picked a more complicated one?" The detail in the little 5 inch fairy was incredible. "Where do you want it?"

"On my back, between the shoulder blades."

"What the point of a tattoo if no one can see it?" I asked as she laid on her stomach.

"Because I"ll know it's there." She said. I laid the magazine out next to her and began to concentrate. I placed my hand over the tattoo and lifted the colors out of the page, keeping my hand steady so as not to smudge the colors. I shifted it over to her back, and infused it into her t-shirt.

"Do you want any color changes? Or is it fine?"

"Can you give her my eyes and make her wings glow red, not blue?" I nodded, though she couldn't see it, and adjusted the colors. Then I took a deep breath and shifted the tattoo out of her shirt and into her skin. I held it there, and sealed in enough power so it would last a while. Tattoos were tricky. They were easy to make permanent, but making them temporary took a peculiar balance of power.

"All done! It should last you about 12 hours."

"Thank you so much Kira! Let me see! Let me see!" She jumped up and hugged me before running to the bathroom. She came back in a minute later squealing. "It's so awesome. Have I told you how amazing you are recently?"

"About twenty minutes ago when I did your hair." I giggled.

"Well, that was to long ago." Mellie replied before she checked her watch. "Crap! I only have an hour to get ready for my date. I gotta go!"

"Okay, calm down, it only takes you like 10 minutes to walk to your building. Do you want your nails done before you go?"

"Green." She stuck her hands out like she was at a salon. I waved my hand over her nails. "A little darker?" I kept adjusting the hue until she whipped her hands away, inspected my work, and gave me a giant bear hug. "Thanks! See ya."

"Bye!" I called to her retreating form. I didn't really mind being her personal beautician. It was fun, and was great practice for my powers. With her help, I'd gotten my morphing time down to 30 seconds tops, maybe a bit more if tattoos were involved.

It was only 5:30, too light out to jack, so I sat down on my little twin bed and chose my target. It was a small, simple vase, with a daisy inside. I focused a ball of light, and began to mold it with my mind until I had a perfect replica of the vase. The daisy took a while longer to make sure every last detail was perfect. I powered my replica for about 20 seconds before I let go of the light and checked the clock. 5:31. I was getting faster. I went over the vase and inspected it from every angle. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn it was real. I passed my hand through the daisy. It wavered for a second, but held up. The little replicas went by fast. Mellie still took about five minutes to replicate. I had just gathered another ball to replicate my chair when someone knocked on the door.

"Honey, I'm heading off to work, alright?" My mom, Laura, was a nurse at the hospital down the road. "Dad will be home at 6, leave a note if you go out."

"Kay mom." I said as I pressed my ear up to the door. I waited until I heard her leave before I walked down the hall to my parent's bedroom. I stood in front of their giant mirror and threw on a disguise. My mid-back length hair was now a coppery red, and my shirt went from green to red. I paled my olive skin until it was milky white, and grabbed a pair of shades to cover my eyes. Changing their color wouldn't do much to hide the fact that I was Asian, so usually I just skipped over them. I gave myself one last inspection, and added a simple star tattoo on my right forearm before running to my room to grab my phone. I wrote up a quick note for my dad, then rushed out of the apartment.

Johnny was waiting for me in the alley next to our building. He got off his bike, and stood with his arms out so I could get to work. His light blue jeans were the first to go, and were now a dark blue. I gave him an incredible tan, and made his spiky hair blonde. His eyes shifted from brown to blue, and his eyebrows were lightened. I smiled at a job well done, and moved to get on the bike before he growled.

"What?"

"Tattoos. Arms. Fire."

"You're a man of many words tonight, aren't you?" I said irritably.

"Just go." Johnny liked fire. Almost every tattoo he asked for had some sort of fire in it, so making his tats have become a breeze after the fiftieth one. I rested a hand on each of his biceps and flames laced down his forearms. I let go after about 20 seconds, and took my gloves out of my back pocket.

"Will that do, your Majesty?" He inspected his arms, smiled, and put on his gloves as well. "Perfect. Lets go."

We got on the bike and he drove us around aimlessly for a while, letting the sun fade behind the buildings. It was just about dusk when he saw It.

It was a black 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda, in amazing condition. I had to remind him that he was the one driving before we died, and he quickly pulled up behind the car and started tailing It. I could not believe I was so close to one of the most perfect cars in existence. And I could not believe that some idiot was driving it around the streets of NYC.

It had a driver.

And we were tailing them.

"No! Johnny we can't!" I screamed in his ear.

"To bad." He sped up. I gripped his waist tighter and felt the gun. "Change the plates."

Hardly aware of what I was doing, I switched up the characters on the out-of-state plate. I was actually going to go through with it. The car's right blinker went on, and It turned onto a side street. I willed the car to speed up, get to some place safe, but it refused.

"I'll take it. You color it, then get the bike and get out." He told me as we began to near a stoplight. There were a few cars in front of us, but no one behind us to watch what was about to happen.

That poor guy had no luck.

Johnny stopped the bike behind It, grabbed the gun and ran up to the driver's side window. I winced as he hurt It, smashing the window with the gun. I quickly drove the motorcycle around the car as the light changed. Johnny smacked the driver in the face with his gun, and roughly pushed him out of the car through the passenger side door and onto the sidewalk. I couldn't see his face as I drove by, only the black leather jacket that he was wearing.

Johnny peeled out right behind me as I made a right, and we raced away from the scene. After we turned the corner I turned It red. The color wouldn't last long, but it would make it back to the shop.

Johnny was going to enjoy his victory for a while before bringing the car to the shop. He always did that when he got a good car. Made him feel all special. It would give me enough time to go to the Police. My mind was frazzled at the thought of it, and I could feel my colors slipping off me. But I had no choice. My conscious wouldn't let me just go home like nothing happened.

I stopped at the first precinct I saw. I asked the woman at the front desk where to go to report a car theft, and she led me to Officer Michaels.

"What can I do for you miss?"

"I stole a car."

"What?"

"I. Stole. A. Car." I said each word distinctly, incase he hadn't heard me right. "Well, this time I didn't steal it, but I helped. I've stolen others though. But you have to get this one back. They're going to take it to a little shop of 18Th street to hide it before they bring it to Jersey to sell, because man are they gonna bring this one to sell. It's a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda. Black. Though right now it's red, but that should wear off soon. I didn't put much power in it. It's really amazing, but Johnny smashed the window and threw the driver out of the car and he's gloating now so you'll have a little time but you have to get it back and stop them!"

"Miss, talk slower. And please, start at the beginning."

At the beginning, well, the day before the beginning, my mother bought me a cell phone. It was a nice phone, one where you could record sounds if you wanted to. I liked it. I brought it with me the first time Johnny took me to see Andre. I left it on during the conversation, and I made sure to bring up the blackmail. I might have been 12, but I wasn't an idiot. Hell, my parents had raised me to one day become a super; to use what was available to me to stay alive and ahead of the villains. And I had a phone.

"Will your DA give me a deal?"

"That depends. Talk." He pulled out a tape recorder.

I liked this guy.

So I told him I was a super and gave a nice little demonstration. I told him about the gang and the blackmail and the jobs we've pulled. I took my phone out of my pocket and played the conversation I had with Andre, where he threatened my parents and my life. I told him most of the dealers we used in Jersey, and where they ran things in the City. I told him there have been hundreds of jobs before this one.

"Why now?" He asked

"Because there was a person in that car. I never pulled a job where there was a risk of anyone getting hurt. But Johnny had his gun. I couldn't refuse. This is the next best thing." I paused. "And he hurt the car."

"Okay, miss, you're going to need to stay here while we get them, we'll bring in the DA and discuss what can be done for your situation."

I nodded. "Can you get my family first?"

He nodded.

He was a good man.

* * *

I am on a plane. Do you know why I am on a plane? Because I'm being shipped to my aunt's house so I can go to the super school.

My parents were shipped to Maine. Though my dad was pretty happy about the powers thing, they were not happy about moving or the fact that I had lead a secret criminal life behind their backs.

Mellie was sent to her cousin's house in Florida. She was not happy about the fact that I had lead a secret criminal life behind her back.

My aunt? So not happy about having to harbor a secret criminal super in her house for 3 years.

So, so not happy.

Me? I'm pretty happy. Really, no sarcasm at all. I'm happy. Andre, Johnny, and most of the gang are in jail awaiting their trials, and none of them have a chance in hell of getting off without prison time.

Them? Not so happy. But a tad bit happier then my aunt.

Officer Michaels got me that deal: probation, 6000 hours of community service, and mandatory schooling at Sky High for stealing 151 cars. Not that shabby. And, the guy got his car back, safe and sound, except for that window. But that could easily be fixed.

Yeah, I was definitely happy.


	2. First Day

This one is a bit short, but the others will be longer, I promise. I'm always open to comments and suggestions, and I absolutely loved the feedback I got on The Beginning! You guys are awesome!! I should be updating about once a week :)

Oh, and if you happen to speak Cantonese, and I am butchering the language, I sincerely apologize. I'm doing the best I can with a phrasebook and the internet, but I'm bound to mess up every once in a while.

Disclaimer is in The Beginning.

* * *

The bad thing about living above a Chinese food restaurant is that you can smell it all the time. There is no escaping it. It fills your dreams, your life, and worse, your clothes. 

The first couple of nights I was left perpetually hungry, and probably would have gained about ten pounds if Aunt Wu didn't keep screaming at me every time I entered the kitchen. It was always in Cantonese too. I can speak the language pretty good, and knew nearly all of her insults, but I'm no where near fluent. Having it yelled in my face doesn't do much for my comprehension either.

There are some good things though. I have my own room, which is bigger then I had in the apartment back in the city, and I have my own bathroom. Aunt Wu usually ignores me, which is actually pretty cool, since she freaks me out. She only talks to me to give me chores and yell at me, calling me a thief and a freak. She's definitely not as happy about the super thing, or me being here, as my folks are. But other then that I'm pretty much on my own whenever I'm upstairs, since she never leaves the restaurant.

But today I had bigger problems than Aunt Wu. Way bigger problems. In less then an hour I would be roaming the halls of Sky High, surrounded by hundreds of kids I didn't know, and could probably kick my ass in a second once I'm branded a Sidekick. My dad had told me about Boomer and his crappy power placement deal, and I was so not looking forward to it.

I mean come on, I can control _colors_ and_ little balls of light. _Like that will get me anywhere in the Hero world. The replicas took to long to be able to do in placement, and the only other somewhat cool thing I can do is make the balls of light blindingly bright. And I don't think Boomer would really appreciate me blinding him.

"Hūi fāai dì!" _Go faster!_ Aunt Wu yelled, and banged on my bedroom door.

"I am!" I called back as I got up off my bed and got dressed. I slipped into a pair of black jeans and a lime green tank top. I stood in front of the mirror and brushed my hair, blending into my glossy black hair one thin bright streak for every color of the rainbow as I did. A smiled grazed my lips as I inspected my work. I had to admit, if I completely failed at the hero stuff, I could always make good money as a beautician.

I made myself a bowl of cheerios in the kitchen while I watched the news on Aunt Wu's small portable television. Maxville's local station was running some story on the Commander and Jetstream, whoever they were. I didn't really follow other supers.

"Hūi!"_Go!_ Oh great, she's back.

"I'm not done with my cheerios, Aunt Wu!" I protested.

"Yi gà!" _Now!_ I stashed my bowl in the sink and practically ran from the kitchen. You would think that a 5'2 skinny old lady couldn't scare someone who was five inches taller and had a good twenty pounds on them.

But of course, you'd be wrong.

I grabbed my back pack and headed out the side door, down the staircase to the street below. My bus stop was supposed to be two streets down on to the left, so I started walking. There were a couple kids there when I arrived. They looked pretty young, freshman probably. They ignored me, so I returned the favor and leaned against a telephone, waiting.

The bus arrived a few minutes later. I was the last to get on, and there were only two seats left: One next to Mr. I'm-Going-To-Eat-Your-Soul-If-You-Come-Near-Me and the other right across the aisle, next to a guy in an orange t-shirt with glasses. I chose to sit next to the latter.

"Hey, I'm Ethan."

"Kira." I told him as the bus started moving. "Nice to meet you."

"You too. Freshman?"

"Sophomore. I'm a transfer kid."

"Cool, you're in our grade then." He turned around motioned to a few kids behind me, and I gave them a smile before I was forced down in my seat by safety straps. My dad had warned me that the bus flew, but I was totally not ready for it. My stomach hopped into my throat as we blasted off from the ground.

"Chiu!"_Dammit!_ I muttered as I looked at the other kids on the bus so I wouldn't look out the window. Mr. Igteysiycnm's head whipped around and he looked at me funny.

So I flipped him off. Really not a smart thing to do, since, you know, one of his hands lit on fire.

"Cool it, Warren." The patriotic kid in the row behind him said. "Leave the first time flier alone."

I glared at the kid. So what if that kid could burn me to a crisp? I'll fight my own battles. I looked back at Warren, formerly known as Mr. Igteysiycnm, and noticed the red streaks in his hair. Cotton candy pink looked so much better on him.

"Hey, how do you get to Principal Power's office?" I asked Ethan.

"Go in the front doors, make a right, and it will be down the hall a ways on your left." He instructed. The bus arrived at the school much faster then I anticipated, and I said goodbye to Ethan before I rushed off the bus. I had to go meet with Principal Powers before my day started.

I followed Ethan's instructions and managed to find her office. She rushed me inside and I sat on a chair in front of her desk.

"Hi Miss Roberts. How was the bus ride?"

"Hello Principal Powers. It was good."

"Good, good. I have your community service assignments ready for you. Right after school on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday a bus will pick you up from the side of the school and bring you to whatever location your group is assigned. You will work until 6:00, when the bus will pick you up and return you to your home. You will also work on Sunday morning, 8:00 to 3:00. It being Wednesday, you'll start today." I gulped. That's 14 hours a week, on top of the hours I'll be putting in at the Lantern. So much for having a life.

"What exactly will I be doing?"

"Trash collector."

"Màt yë ā?"_What? _I squealed, horrified. "I'm going to be a garbage man?"

"No, you'll be picking up trash along the highways."

"Oh. Er, wonderful. Better then jail."

"Yes, Miss Roberts, I do believe it is better then jail. But I must warn you to be on your best behavior here. Do not give us a reason to send you to back to prison."

"Well, I was never technically in..." She gave me the evil eye. "I won't! I swear." It kind of irked me how she could sound so nice while threatening my freedom.

"Good. Officer Michaels will be checking up on you occasionally, yes?" I nodded. "Very well then. Let me walk you to power placement."

She stood up, and I followed her out of the room. The halls were empty. I guess the bell had rung without us noticing. She led me to what I presumed was the gym, where a girl in a Red Hot Chili Pepper t-shirt stood on the platform next to Boomer.

"Name and Power."

"Anna Smith, and..." She leaned into Boomer and whispered her power. Even from where I was standing I could see the blush working its way up his face.

"Power up." Anna's transformation floored me. She went from a fierce looking, brown-haired teenager to an adorable little blond girl in a frilly white dress, who was about 3 years old.

"POWER DOWN NOW!" Boomer screamed at Anna, and she shifted back to her normal self, looking sheepish. Boomer looked absolutely pissed, and I felt bad for the girl. I really didn't expect him to label her a Hero.

Principal Powers shook my shoulder, and pointed to the group of freshmen standing before Coach Boomer. They stared at me. I joined them.

"Coach Boomer, can you please place Miss Roberts here so I can get her to her classes?"

"Fine, Principal. Girl, up here, now!" I stared at Coach Boomer, who's name suited him really, really well, as I walked up onto the platform. He didn't have sunglasses on. Oh well.

"Name and power."

"Kira Roberts, and I can create and manipulate light and colors."

"Power up."

"Um, sir. Just tell me to stop before I blind you, okay?"

"POWER UP!"

I squealed and formed a ball of light about the size of my head in between my hands. I sent it flying around the gym, over the heads of the freshman and Principal Powers, continuously shifting colors as it went. Then it started to get brighter. I called it back and poured power into the now glowing white ball of light. The brightness intensified, and I closed my eyes as it continued to grow. I heard some of the freshman start to moan, so I made it even brighter. With Powers here he couldn't make me a Sidekick for blinding him, right?

"POWER DOWN."

The light disappeared. I opened my eyes and blinked away the purplish dots as I waited for my answer. Boomer was blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes.

"Hero!"


	3. Catching Up

A/n: Once again, thanks for the awesome reviews!

**Disclaimer is in The Beginning.**

* * *

I sighed in relief as I walked off the platform and over to Principal Powers. She beckoned me out of the room and I followed her down the hall. 

"That power was not mentioned in the police reports."

"I know. I kept that aspect of my power hidden from the gang, and since it wasn't involved I never mentioned it. But I don't think changing the color of his hat would have made me a Hero, Ma'am." She chuckled.

"Is that all you can do?"

"No, I can also replicate things, but they aren't solid, just holograms kinda."

Principal Powers nodded and 'hmmmmed'.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why did Coach Boomer make Anna a hero? Wouldn't fighting a 3 year old be easier then a teenager?"

"Anna's parents are SoulSeer and Doppelgänger." I nodded like I knew who they were. "She got a mix of both their powers." Still not comprehending; Powers sighed. "She can shape shift into the person you love, or loved, most in the world."

"Oh." She took a piece of paper out of her pocket as I digested this information and gave it to me. It was my class schedule.

"How did you know?"

"I made one for each track."

I nodded as I skimmed the paper: Mad Science, Power Development, Hero English and Alibis, Lunch, History of Heroes, Unarmed Combat, Hero Math and Codes, and Gym. "Are these freshmen or sophomore courses?"

"Mostly mixed and Sophomore classes," She replied. "It might be hard at first, but I think you'll catch up in no time."

I hoped she was right. I wasn't an idiot, so normal school had been a breeze. But the curriculum here was in no way considered normal. We stopped in front of what I assumed was Mad Science, and the principal led the way in. "Mr. Medulla, I have another student for you."

"Yes, yes, very well." Mr. Medulla said when I walked into the room.

I felt very bad for his mother.

"Sit down over there," He pointed an empty seat near the door, next to a lanky boy in and black and white stripped shirt. I had just reached the desk when the principal spoke up.

"Excuse me, Mr. Medulla, but may I suggest she sit next to Larry instead?"

I glared at the woman. Did she really hate me so much that she wanted me to sit with the dorky kid in glasses instead of a cute one?

"Well...alright then." Mr Medulla agreed and pointed to the only other empty seat. I grudgingly sat down, gave Larry a polite smile, and glanced over to the door, but Powers was already gone. At least the lanky kid looked kind of peeved. "Miss..."

"Kira."

"Well then Kira, I was just explaining that the class will be divided up into three main units: Weaponry, Transportation, and Medicine..." Medulla went on to describe the basics of the class, what we would be learning, and I was already lost. He expected us to be able to construct ray guns and jet packs? Seriously?

Medulla spent the next half hour discussing the joys of technology. I practically jumped out of my seat when the bell rang. The hallway was packed with kids, and it seemed as if everyone was walking around with friends. I had lived in the same neighborhood in NYC all my life, and knew most of the kids in my schools. Being the new kid was weird and unnerving.

I managed to find Power Development pretty easily. It was in a large empty room just down the hall from Mad Science. All the students were standing in the back of the room, talking amongst themselves. There were no teachers in the room as far as I could tell. The kids looked like a mix of all the grades, and there were even a few freshman that I remember seeing in placement. As I walked further into the room, I saw Anna practically hiding in the back corner of the room. I walked over to her and she gave me a small smile.

"Hey, I saw you in placement. You were really good." I told her.

"You made my eyes hurt." She was laughing as she said it.

"Heh, yeah, sorry about that."

"No problem. I'm Anna."

"Kira." Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Hell, I didn't think my name was that bad.

"Wha–" Someone's hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around. It was Warren, with Ethan behind him, and he was beyond pissed. I expected him to start yelling, but Mr. Silent Brooding Boy just stared at me and growled "Fix it."

"Sorry." I squeaked as I changed his streaks back to their original red. He took a strand of hair, looked at it, and growled again, in what I assumed was a 'thank you.' Warren strutted away, and Ethan gave me a half smile before following him.

"What just happened? That was _Warren Peace_!" Anna asked, bewildered.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." I told her as the bell rang, and three teachers entered the room. They were all wearing jeans and nice, professional looking shirts, but they didn't really look like teachers. The middle-aged guy, he seemed to be about 40 years old, took a stepped forward. "Hello class, my name is Mr. Jacobson, and these two are Mr. Sald and Mrs. Devuex. Since you're students here at Sky High, you all have powers. And hey, you can probably even do a few parlor tricks. But we're here to teach you control, and how to learn the ins and outs of your respective powers, and use them wisely. You cannot be a proper hero, or villain, if you cannot control your powers. You'll wind up hurting innocent people, and probably yourselves."

Mrs. Devuex cut in. "In this class, we'll divide you up into 5 small groups, with 4 students in a group. You'll work with each other, helping the others, and yourself, learn about controlling your powers, but not by attacking each other. I'm sure you all love Save the Citizen, all you'll still play it in gym, but sometimes you can learn more about yourself working with others then attacking them."

It was Mr. Sald's turn next. "We will divide you up into your groups." There were groans. "And each one of us will sit down with your group at some point during the class and work with you. Now, the groups are as followed..." He rattled off a list of names. I stopped paying attention until he got to the third group, mainly because he said my name, followed by Anna's, Ethan's, and Warren's.

This would be interesting.

"Now that you all have your groups, divide yourselves up and introduce yourself to those classmates you don't know. As some of you may have noticed, there are also sidekicks in this class. We know it is just as important for them to learn the full extent of their powers as it is for the heros, because honestly, half of the heroes out there now would be lost without their sidekicks. So get going, we'll be coming around and logging your powers, so just wait until we reach your group before you guys start to experiment."

"I can't believe they put us together!" Anna was ecstatic, and I couldn't blame her. It was nice having at least one person you knew in a class. "And with _him_!"

"Who him? Ethan?"

"No, Warren! He's so hot." Well, duh. On top of his face, he was completely ripped under that leather jacket. You'd have to be blind not to notice that.

"That he may be, but he's not the friendliest guy in the bunch."

"Aw, I'm not?" Great. Just great.

I turned around to see that him and Ethan had joined us. "Anna, this is Ethan and Warren. Ethan and Warren, this is Anna."

"I thought you were new, how do you know _them_?" Anna whispered in my ear.

"Bus." I whispered back, noticing she the way she said 'them'. What was so important about these two? She shook Ethan's hand and was about to offer it to Warren, but quickly retracted it. I didn't blame her.

"Hello everyone." Mrs. Deveux joined us. "Lets have a seat on the floor here and get started, shall we? Make a circle please." We all sat down into a circle, which I made pretty big considering Warren was next to me. "Alright, Ethan, is it? Let's start with you." Ethan melted into a puddle. "Well, have some fun with it!" I watched as the Ethan-puddle zoomed around the room, going up vertical walls and weaving in and out of people. It was actually pretty cool to watch. "Okay Ethan that's good." Mrs. Deveux took a few notes as Ethan rejoined the group in his human form.

"Warren, you're up." I scooted away from him. Warren uncrossed his arms and they burst into flames. Anna squealed, and I didn't blame her. I was about 5 feet away from him and I could still feel the heat. "Good, good. No lighter?" Warren shook his head. "Okay, stand up and hit that target over there." She pointed to a circle that was drawn on the wall about 25 feet away. Warren created a ball of fire and threw it at the wall, leaving a huge scorch mark where the circle had been. "Excellent. Have a seat please." More notes were scribbled.

"Okay then, Kira, you can go next."

"Um, which one do you want me to do?"

"What? You have more then one power? That wasn't on the list."

"No, I just have one, but I can do different things with it." She nodded, and I started by coloring my clothes, turning my jeans yellow and tank top a deep blue. I looked at Anna, who pointed to her head, and I turned her hair from its natural brown to a light blond. I waited for Mrs. Deveux to finish her notes before I created a ball of light, and sent it flying around the room, directing it with my hand. I had it absorb into the wall where Warren left his scorch mark and got rid of it. The spot was to far away for me to color it without the extra light. I took a deep breath and looked at the group.

"Does anyone have a watch or something smallish I can borrow?" Ethan took off his glasses and handed them to me. I set them down on the floor below me, and whipped up another ball of light next to the glasses. I concentrated, blocking out everything else, and in about ten seconds had made a duplicate. I picked up Ethan's actual glasses and gave them back to him.

"Very nice." More writing. "Are those solid?"

"Haha, no way. It's just kind of like a hologram." Anna poked the glasses, and giggled when her finger went right through it.

"Okay then. Anna, you're up." I made the replica vanish. Anna looked around the group nervously.

"You can use me if you want." I offered. She looked confused. "Powers told me."

"Anna, go ahead." Mrs. Deveux commanded. I faced Anna, and watched as she looked into my eyes then looked away. Then she grew into my dad. It wasn't that shocking, I had always been a daddy's girl, but it was kind weird knowing that she could just look at me and know something so personal.

"Alright, Kira, who is that?"

"My Dad." More notes.

"Good, good. Now, you guys just sit put while I go log another group. No powers."

Anna went back to being her original self, and I changed my colors back quickly, as well as Anna's hair, before she left. When Mrs. Deveux was gone, we just kind of stared at each other.

"Well, that was fun."

"It was actually pretty informative." Ethan said. "I've been trying to figure out how you messed with Warren's hair before, ever since I knew it was it you. I mean, I didn't actually see you do it but it was only logical since no one else near us had that kind power, and it was really clever because I didn't notice it until Magenta started laughing."

"Popsicle!"

"Okay, okay. Jeez." Ethan rolled his eyes, and Anna laughed. "Do you guys want to sit with us at lunch?"

"No." Warren growled before we could say anything. Anna looked like she might cry. "Not her." He pointed to me. I know I should have just dropped it and said 'whatever', but I couldn't.

"Why not me? I said sorry!"

"No."

"Well you didn't have to power up on me!"

"No."

"I only flipped you off cause you looked at me funny."

"Yོng yi."

"Hey don't call me–" My eyes widened as I realized what he said. That's why he looked at me funny!

"Ngőh gɐm gɐm dūi m jཽཾe!"_I'm so so sorry!_

"Not another one."

"I'm so lost." Ethan and Anna said at the same time. Ethan started filling Anna in on what happened this morning, while I just stared at Warren, waiting for a response. He just stared back, blinked, and gave the quickest nod I'd ever seen.

"Dྂh jོ."_Thank you._

"Oh my God! I can't believe you stood up to Warren Peace!" I couldn't help it, I laughed. She was talking as if he wasn't even there.

"Well how was I supposed to know who he was? I'd never met him before."

"You didn't recognize him?"

"Why would I? No offense or anything, but it's not like you're a movie star." I shrugged at Warren.

"But they saved the school last year! They defeated Royal Paine! How could you not know about them?" Would she ever give up?

"I just moved here. And back home, I really didn't pay attention to super affairs. I wasn't interested."

"Why not? You're a super! You're going to be a Hero one day. Right?"

"Probably, but I definitely wasn't planning on it." I told her. "I only paid attention to hero stuff when my dad was involved."

"Oh."

"Just drop it." Warren said.

"Well, now I have to know what happened." I looked around the group. "Tell. But keep it short."

Ethan took over from there. "Well, it started back when Will Stronghold's parents were at Sky High, there was this girl called Sue Tenny..."

I guess I couldn't really blame Ethan. The whole story took about ten minutes, and no matter how hard he tried to keep it short, it was just impossible. There was to much going on to wrap it up in a few minutes. Especially with me interrupting him every time a new name came up.

"Wow." Was all I could say before the bell rang.


	4. Attitude

Sorry for the wait, was gone for the weekend and just got home. I didn't get to edit this one as thoroughly as I'd like, so I'll apologize now in case anything is messed up, though it shouldn't be that bad.

**Disclaimer is in The Beginning.**

* * *

English was probably going to become one of my favorite classes. I had never liked the subject back at my regular school, the essays were pointless and the books sucked, but here, the entire class revolved around Comic books and lying. How much better could it get? 

And there was even one kid I kind of knew there, the patriotic boy from the bus, whom I assumed was Will. For a new kid I've pretty much lucked out so far. After the bell rang I waited at the door for him.

"Thanks for this morning." It took him a second to remember me, but he smiled when he did.

"No problem. Can't let Warren obliterate every person that ticks him off, can I?"

I laughed. "Guess you can't. Ethan and Warren invited me and a friend to join you guys for lunch. I hope that's okay?"

"Ethan_ and _Warren?"

"Yeah, we managed to clear up our little misunderstanding during Power Development."

"You're lucky, his grudges usually last longer." Will said as he led me into the cafeteria.

"What can I say, I have a way with words." We got our lunch and sat down at an empty table, which soon filled up with the kids I saw on the bus earlier, as well as Anna. Ethan introduced us to everyone, and from his story in PD I was able to figure out who everyone else was. I was surprised to see Warren sitting in the middle of the group, since he didn't seem like much of a people person, but my suspicions were confirmed when he barely spoke and only grunted when necessary. I watched the bunch as I ate my food. Will and the red-haired girl, Layla I presumed, were obviously a couple. As well as Magenta and Zach, though they didn't act all lovey-dovey like the other two did.

"So Kira, where're you from?" Layla's question caught me off guard, and the whole group stared at me, waiting for my answer. The cops had told me to keep my past to myself, for my own protection of course. That was why they moved everyone around, in case Andre ever wanted revenge. But they didn't exactly detail every last bit of information I was allowed to give, and what I wasn't.

"New York City." I finally managed to settle my inner debate. Besides, I didn't want to lie to these guys, I had really started to like them. I'd just omit some key facts.

The group didn't say anything, and I looked around nervously. "What?"

"Nothing." Zach finally piped up. "Why'd you come all the way out here?"

"Dad wanted me to go to the school he went to." They 'Oh'ed', and nodded in agreement. I assumed their parents had wanted the same.

"So what do you guys have next?" Magenta asked quickly, and everyone took out their schedules and began comparing classes. I had History with Will, and Combat with Layla, Magenta, and Zach. Everyone had gym together. Ethan and Will started up a heated conversation about one of the teachers I didn't have, so I tuned them out and looked around the cafeteria.

The lanky kid from Mad Science was sitting alone at a table nearby. It surprised me, he seemed like a kid who would have at least one follower or two. Or at least some female attention.

"Hey, do you guys mind if I invite someone else to sit with us? Just for today?"

"Not another one." Warren muttered, earning a kick under the table from Layla. "Go ahead." She said. I gave her a smile and took my tray over to the lanky kid's table. I sat down across from him. He looked up when he realized someone was there. "Go away."

"That's not very nice."

"I'm not very nice." He looked at me. "Who are you?"

"Transfer kid."

"Mad Science?"

"Yeah. I'm Kira."

"Lash."_Oh._Well, that explains a lot.

"You wanna come sit with us?"

"Are you kidding? Join Stronghold's bunch? No way." He looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Why not? Sitting by yourself can't be fun."

"Well, it's not like I have much of a choice now, do I? People don't sit next to criminals."

"Why not? Criminals aren't all that bad."

"What are you on and where can I get some?" I made him smile! One point for me.

"Absolutely nothing, and not from me. Sorry. Dealing isn't really my thing." A laugh! Kind of. Two points.

"No problem."

"Can I ask you something?" He shrugged.

"I thought you were in jail?"

"I got a deal. I chose to come back to this place and spend the rest of my life doing community service instead of rotting in a jail cell for the next 5 years."

"Cool. Me too." Really, who was he going to tell?

"What?"

"Did you ever wonder why Powers wouldn't let us sit together? Can't let the criminals associate with each other." I snuck a glance back at the other table, and they all watched me intently. I gave Lash my best smile. "Well, if you don't want to join us, I've gotta go. I'll see you later, okay?"

I heard him mutter "Crazy." as I walked back to the group.

"Why were you talking to Lash?" Magenta asked.

"You wanted _him _to join us?" Will had decided I was crazy as well.

"Are you nuts? He's evil!" That last bit came from Zach.

"Hey, he's really not as bad as you guys think he is."

"And you got that from what? One conversation." Warren could speak in sentences. Shocking.

"Warren, a normal person's conversation is a lot more in depth then yours." The others snickered. "Besides, sometimes one conversation is enough."

"I think someone's brainwashed her into having a death wish." Ethan said. "You weren't here last year when he helped try to take over the school. That kid is rotten."

"But have any of you talked with him? Besides trading insults? It's true I didn't see him last year, but maybe you guys didn't see _him_ either. Maybe he had his reasons for joining Royal Paine. Who knows, maybe she forced him to." The others just looked at me as if I lost it. I just shrugged, realizing I would never win this fight.

* * *

The rest of the day went quickly. I learned history would be my downfall, and I would never be able to kick anyone without hurting my foot worse then my opponent. After the final bell, I made my way to the bus as fast as I could hobble. I could hear their conversation from ten feet away; someone was not happy. 

"Kid, we can't go until everyone is here."

"Who else could you be waiting for? Come on, I want to get this over with." I could tell from his voice Lash was ready to maul the poor bus driver. His jaw dropped as I walked onto the bus.

"Kira Roberts?" I nodded. "Good. Sit down, away from him, please."

"See? They don't let criminals sit next to each other." I smiled at Lash and took a seat near the front. I could feel his eyes on me.

"Her? I have to do this with her?"

"Sit down Lash." I looked over just in time to see him take a seat in the back of the bus. The bus driver started the bus and we took off. The ride back down was slightly easier, but it still made my stomach turn. After we touched down, we drove for about twenty minutes until the bus driver pulled us over at a rest stop off the highway. We parked next to a prison bus, bars on the windows and all.

Yeah. That was a bit unsettling.

"Okay, you two, since it's Kira's first time, I'll go over the rules again. One: no powers. At all. Two: you will listen to Mr. Jones, and do whatever he says. Three: you will not interact with the prisoners. Four: don't bother trying to run. You'll trip. Now, have fun kids. I'll be back at 6:00."

"What do you mean we'll trip?" I asked him as I got up out of my seat.

"You'll see. Now move it."

I walked off the bus to see about 20 prisoners in fluorescent orange vests gathered in the parking lot. They were lined up in two rows to received bags and pokers from the cop, who was probably Mr. Jones. I got on the end of the line, expecting Lash to join me, but he held back.

"Come on." He shook his head. "Look, I'm not going to bite you or anything. Jesus." He hesitated, but finally stood next to me in line. It took about five minutes before we reached the front.

"Who're you?" I was getting pretty tired of this question.

"Kira Roberts." Mr. Jones scribbled something on his clipboard, then he handed us each a bag and a poker. "You two have the area around the rest stop sign. Pick up everything but dead animals, broken bottles, and needles. And things with blood on them. Be back here by 6:00, and if you fill your bags early come back and get a new one." I nodded, and was about to walk away when Lash grabbed my shoulder. "Hold it."

Then Mr. Jones handcuffed our feet together as I stood there blabbering nonsense like an idiot. When he was done Lash started dragging me toward our destination. It was not a pretty site.

"Can you learn how to walk?"

"Maybe if you didn't take such giant steps I wouldn't keep tripping."

"It's not my fault you have stumpy legs."

"Hey! My legs are not stumpy. Yours are just freakishly long."

The entire three hours were mostly taken up by our extremely witty banter. Eventually we got the walking thing down right, and only managed to fall about five times. Or maybe ten. I kind of lost count.

"Come on." Lash said, and tugged on my arm

"Huh?"

"It's almost 6:00."

"Oh." I never thought I'd be disappointed to be leaving community service as a trash picker-upper, but I had actually had fun. And I thought Lash had a good time too, until he shoved me against a tree, of course.

"What the hell?"

"You will not tell anyone that I pick up trash after school. Got that?"

"Yeah, like I'm going to tell them? Hello, I'm secretly wearing the gross orange vest too!"

He thought that over. "Still. Keep your mouth shut. Now let's go." He let go of me.

"Jeez, you have issues."

"You're just figuring this out?" He asked as we began our trek back to the bus.

* * *

I got back to my Aunt's place around 6:30, and she was not a happy camper. As soon as I got down to the kitchen to whip up some dinner, she threw an apron at me and told me to get to work. Apparently one of the waiters didn't show up for his shift, and why call in another worker when she had free labor right upstairs? 

"Woon goh gōh tau fāat. Yi gà hūi! Hūi!" _Change that hair. Now go! Go!_

I huffed and left the kitchen, and took the streaks out of my hair once I was out of Aunt Wu's sight. I surveyed the small dining room, which was mostly empty except for a few tables. One of which held Layla and Will.

"What can I get you two?" I asked after I walked over to them.

"I'll have the sweet and sour tofu with vegetables and a water."

"And I'll have the general tso's chicken and a coke." Will looked up as he handed me his menu and blinked. "Kira?"

"Hey."

"You work _here_?"

"Yeah. Wasn't supposed to start until next week, but some waiter bailed tonight, so my Aunt made me come in."

Layla and Will shared a looked. "Do you know who it was that didn't show?" Layla asked as she passed me her menu.

I shrugged. "No idea. I don't really know anyone who works here except for the kitchen guys. Why?"

"Oh, no reason." Layla said, with a little laugh in her voice.

"Okay then, I'll go get your drinks." I told them. There was something strange going on with those two. After I went back into the kitchen I peeked out the window at the pair. They were whispering, giggling occasionally (even Will), and were glancing at the door I had gone through every couple of seconds.

Something was definitely going on with them. I put the order in with cooks and brought their drinks out before making my rounds at the other tables. I tried to hear snippets of their conversation, but every time I passed they quieted down. Soon I gave up and headed back to the kitchen. I snuck into the bathroom before my Aunt had a chance to see me, and pulled out my cell phone.

"Come on..." Why did it always take her so long to pick up the phone?

"HI HOW WAS IT?!" Well, Mellie was excited.

"It was good. Speed talk. Hiding bathroom, Aunt kitchen, working." Mellie, who already talked way too fast, started 'speed talk' a few years back when our parent's started hassling us about hogging the phone.

"Sucks. School?"

"Fun. Hero, weird classes and kids. Some nice."

"Made friends?"

"Yeah. Merged with group. Really like them."

"Hot boys?"

"Attacked me."

"What did I tell you about threatening hot boys?"

"Not enough. Besides, moody. Not worth it."

"All hot boys are worth it."

"Speed talk! Not fire-throwing ones."

"Fine. Others?"

"Not yet. First day. Give time."

"Expect boy by tomorrow." I laughed at her. Sad thing was, she was serious.

"No way."

"No more excuses. Socialize."

"But–"

"No buts. Seriously. You now go to a school filled with supers, so no more mega-secret. There is no longer a death threat on the people you care about, which I might add, I'm still mad about since you never told me. And now you're a free 16 year old girl. Get used to it and be one."

"That is so not speed talk Mellie." I whined.

"Don't care. How's Aunt?"

"Nűi jái!" _Girl!_

"Loi gán!" _Coming!_I shouted back. "Devil speaks. Love you."

"You too. Remember: boy!"

"Fine!" I hung up and darted out of the bathroom. I saw Will and Layla's food sitting on the counter, and rushed them out of the kitchen before my Aunt could say another word.


	5. Save the Citizen

**Thanks to those who reviewed! I hate to be one who begs for reviews, but I love hearing from you guys. I don't care if they're flames or not, you guys are the only reason I'm getting these out on time XP**

**I've also noticed that I use a ton of dialogue. Like, a lot. Do you guys like the dialogue, or wish I'd use more description and such //ends neediness.**

* * *

The rest of the week was long and uneventful. The hours which weren't devoted to picking up trash went mostly to homework and research, since my history teacher informed me that I was already failing on the third day of class.

Impressive, huh?

"Do we have to do any more?" Mellie asked late Sunday night after we finished going over Cyclone, a 70's hero with weather powers.

"There's just one more on the list. Ravenwing."

"You better get an A on this stupid test." She grumbled as she pulled up the super's page on the internet, while I searched my text book.

"Ngőh jì dò." _I know. _The book didn't have much on Ravenwing, only that she was a flyer who was taken down by some super villain named Brick. Apparently crashing into a brick wall at Mach 3 was not a smart thing to do. "Book says she had the power of flight and was killed by a guy named Brick. What do you have?"

"Mostly the same. Right out of school she saved a bunch of people from a flood in Malaysia, and she was partnered up with some sidekick named Drowser. He could make people fall asleep by talking. Poor guy."

"Must have been a hit with the ladies." I said before I heard deafening metallic crash in the alley outside my window.

"What was that?" Mellie screamed in my ear.

"I don't know!" I opened the window, and looked down into the alley, but it was too dark to see anything.

"Kira, your flashlight!" I loved this girl. She was always stopping me before I could stupidly use my powers. I grabbed my flashlight from my dresser and flicked it on as I stuck my head out my window. I increased the weak light until the whole alley was lit up. The trash cans that had been neatly lined up along the wall were thrown about the alley, their contents covered the ground.

"Tăoyàn!"

"Kira, telling me it's disgusting doesn't help much. What's going on? Is someone there?"

"If someone was there, they're gone now." I told her. "They knocked over all the trash cans, not the Dumpster though, thank god. Cleaning the cans up will take long enough. Wait, wait, what's that?"

"Giant robot?"

"I think it's a cat."

"Man, it's never the giant robot." Mellie said. "You need a more interesting life."

"Interesting usually means someone's going to wind up dying. I'm quite fine with my life. It is a cat, by the way."

"Big whoop, a cat. Keep it away from your aunt, she might put it in the food."

"That is horrible."

"So is she."

"Good point." The cat stared up at me as if it knew what we were talking about. It was a cute little tabby, probably no more then a year old, and it didn't have a collar.

"Kira, I know what you're thinking. Stop now. She won't let you keep that thing. Besides, it probably has rabies or something. It'll scratch you then BAM, dead. Then I'll have to fly up there and hunt down that stupid thing and kill it, and you know how much I hate killing cute things."

"But it's so cute!"

"Kira."

"Fine. I'll leave it alone." I told her as I shut my window and put away the flashlight. I jumped back onto my bed and opened up my history book again. "So did we get to Ravenwing?"

"You're not going to pass, are you?"

"Nope."

* * *

"Class, today we will be constructing a simple paralysis ray. Get out your books and look through chapter 8 for the instructions. I have set up 9 groups of the supplies you'll need in the back, so take a tray and get to work. You have thirty minutes before we test them on the moths."

Larry dashed out of his seat before I could even ask him to get the supplies. We both realized pretty early on that he was going to be hopeless in this class, so he had become the official helper: the kid who got all the supplies and read the instructions. When he got back to the table I inspected the parts, and was grateful that Medulla was taking it easy on us. There were only about 20 pieces on the tray, when there could have easily been 50.

Larry began to read the directions as I separated the pieces into piles depending on where they would go in the ray. I finished assembling the inner working of the ray in about twenty minutes, and passed it on to Larry so he could finish with the outside.

"Um..."

"Just put on the plating! Read line 15, and do exactly what it says."

"Sure thing Kira."

I groaned and rested my chin on my palm. This kid was going to be the death of me. I was about to tell him to stop trying to fit a handle piece to the body when I felt something sharp pierce my back. I tried to move my arm back so I could feel what hit me, but my stupid limb wouldn't listen. In fact, none of me would listen.

I could hear his stupid soft laugh from across the room.

I tried making some sort of sound to alert Larry, but I failed, and he was too preoccupied trying to fit that stupid little piece to notice. But I was glad that Lash had frozen me when he did, since my eyes were open and focused on the board.

'_Mr. Medulla, can you help me?' _appeared on the white board in large, urgent letters, but I could hear him behind me engrossed in an explanation with another student. _'Lash I swear I will freaking kill you if you don't get his attention right now you filthy little"_

"Sir! I think Kira is having some problems."

"What? Oh dear, oh dear, did you get hit? That is why I brought out the moths people!" Medulla stood in front of me and poked me for a minute. "Oh dear, it seems that whoever hit you made quite a good ray. It will take me about twenty minutes to make a reversal ray. You'll have to stay put until then though."

'_Like that would be a problem' _I heard a few snickers behind me.

"Okay kids, you have 5 minutes left before we test your rays, on the moths this time."

I sat there and zoned out as the rest of them finished and tested their rays. Some failed, some worked. Ours, at least, worked.

The bell rang, and the students began to file out of the room, except for me of course. I would have squealed and jumped when someone pinched my butt, but lucky for them I was stuck.

"My aim's been getting better, huh?" Lash whispered in my ear.

'_I hate you'_

"Aw, someone's cranky." I pictured Lash's t-shirt in my mind, and wrote 'Pansy' on the front in girly pink letters as he walked out of the room.

* * *

"So I heard you got frozen in Mad Science." Will said as I walked into English.

"So I'm guessing that the super school has super gossip?"

"Yup. How long did it take Medulla to get you free?"

"Only about twenty minutes. I made it to the last half of PD where everyone had a good laugh at my expense."

"That's always good." He said as the bell rang.

"Okay class, settle down." Mrs. Edwards commanded. "Take out your notebooks and react to the situation on the board."

Mrs. Edwards was probably my favorite teacher here. She had complete power over language and speech, and could say any word in any language. Supposedly she worked for the FBI before she came back to teach English and foreign language courses for seniors. Mrs. Edwards always spoke to me in Cantonese, but it was really helping me get better control of the language, the speaking part anyway.

"Time's up. Jordan, start."

"I would tell them I have to use the bathroom, then leave."

"Unimaginative, but okay."

She went down the rows, and got most of the same responses, but she had to expect it, the prompt wasn't to complicated: You're at a packed party, and your emergency phone rings.

"I would tell them I was sick and go into the bathroom, then jump out the bathroom window."

"Okay, I'm going to stop with this one, because it could either work very well, or crash and burn. Tell me why."

"No window."

"Small window."

"They'll follow you."

"That's the one I was looking for. Now, the number one factor in a successful alibi is how it is tailored to the people around you. If you're with your best friend, and you tell her you're sick, would she be the kind of person to follow you into the bathroom and hold your hair? Or would she just let you go by yourself because she thinks it's gross? These are the kinds of things you need to think about. In this class, not only will I teach you the right lies to tell, but I will help you read the people around you so you'll know which lie will work best with them. Now, at the party, what would be the best alibi to get rid of the clingy best friend?"

"Tell her she's fat?"

"That won't cause a scene or make you lose your friend, Linka."

"Just slip away into the crowd and do damage control later."

"Hó."_ Good._ "Kira's suggestion is probably the best when dealing with a clingy person, though you cannot use it too many times before someone begins to get suspicious..." She went on for the rest of the period, and all the complications of a clingy best friend made me so thankful I had Mellie.

* * *

"Did you pass?" Layla asked me as we walked up the bleachers to where Warren and Will were sitting.

"I hope so. I studied like crazy last night." We were soon joined by the rest of the gang, and eagerly discussed our days before Boomer walked into the gym.

"Stronghold, Peace. Get down here." The boys grimaced and walked down to the Save the Citizen arena. It was the first time Boomer had called those two into the ring this year, and I was eager to see them kick some butt.

"Okay, Roberts, Kinday, you're up."

"Mat ye ā?" I whispered, horrified. The rest of the gang looked at me sympathetically.

"It would have had to happen eventually." Anna told me.

"But against them?"

"Today is not your day." Magenta said as she pointed to the other person moving toward the arena.

"Oh no. No no nonono."

"Roberts! MOVE!" They pushed me toward the arena, and I felt like I was walking my death march. I saw that Will and Warren had put on their Hero gear, so I would be the villain.

With Lash.

Joy.

I slipped the plastic gear over my jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt before I walked over to Lash. "Would this be a good time to tell you I have no offensive powers?"

"What?" He gasped, and looked at me like I told him he was going to die in ten days. I shrugged at him, and he pushed me into the ring. "You take Warren." He commanded.

"Sure, let me get burned."

"Peace, Stronghold, it's your job to Save the Citizen. One power per person. You have 3 minutes. GO!"

"Save me!" The metallic voice rang out from the girl being held above the giant spike-ridden death machine. Will immediately flew toward the dummy, but was tossed aside by Lash. I stopped watching them as Warren charged at me. I dodged his fireballs, and threw some light balls at him, but he knew they were harmless and just let them hit him.

I started weaving a wall of light around his body, and encased him inside. I tried my best to keep it around him as he started running, but he kept breaking through. I upped the brightness as high as I could without blinding him, which must have worked somewhat since he stopped moving as much. But his fireballs just came more frequently and random, and they became harder to dodge.

Suddenly, I felt a hand wrap around my ankle and I was flung into the air. I screamed, then was flying before I smacked into something hard and lumpy. I heard the arena erupt into shouting as I hit the floor. I groaned, rolled off of what I guessed was Will, and scanned the arena. My light had fallen off Warren, and he was quickly approaching the citizen. I tried to weave another trap, but my arm refused to move, and I was to tired to do it without a focus. I looked at the clock, 30 seconds left, then back at that stupid dummy as it inched closer to the blades.

Then I got an idea.

I focused in on the dummy and the rope that held it, and colored it clear. The dummy vanished. I watched Warren's jaw drop, and giggled. He went up to the machine, stared, and looked at Will.

"Stop him!" I hissed at Lash as Will went to fly up and see what happened. His arms reached out and grabbed onto Will's feet. I winced as Will was smashed into the wall. Lash's arms shrunk as he moved his body toward Will. The two started wrestling around as the time went down to 10. Warren ran over to me and aimed a fireball at me, almost breaking my concentration.

"Where is she?" He growled. His fire dimmed for a moment when he noticed the blood dripping down my face.

I threw a blinder at his eyes with my good arm, and he howled, but the light around the dummy slipped out of my control. I saw Will escape from Lash's hold to grab the girl, then heard Boomer yelling "HEROES WIN" before I finally blacked out.


	6. Seperation

**I hate to say it, but the next chapter might not come out on time. I have a lot going on this week, not to mention the fact that I'm going away over the weekend (woo college?). I'm really sorry, but I will definitely get it out the Monday after next, which should give me enough time to finish the chapter and get far enough ahead on the next couple of chapters that I won't have this problem in the future.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High, I make no money from this, yada yada yada...**

* * *

"Thank you Lisa, you can go back to class."

I groaned. My head was foggy and aching, but I was pretty sure my name wasn't Lisa.

"Oh, dear, you're awake? No no, don't try to get up and watch your arm, Lisa just fixed the break but it's still pretty tender." One of my eyelids was yanked opened, and I briefly saw Nurse Spex before she blinded me with her little flashlight. She did the same to the other eye before she started poking my head.

"Well, good thing is you don't have a concussion and your arm is no longer broken. But you're still bruised pretty badly along your left side, and you have a couple of stitches in your forehead, so be careful with those. They'll dissolve in about a week or so." I nodded at her, and looked up at the clock. My bus would leave in 15 minutes.

"Can I go now?"

"Honey, you just got thrown around like a puppet. Take a break, here, have some chocolate." She handed me the bar as I sat up. I winced and nibbled on the candy. "Would you like me to send in the fan club?"

"Fan club?"

"Yeah, a bunch of girls and few boys tried to follow that Peace boy in with you, but I told them to wait in the hall until you woke up. That poor boy, you bled all over his shirt."

"Wonderful." At least I could take the stain out for him. "Could you, uh , send them away?"

"Why dear? I thought young girls always loved to have people fawn over them?"

"I just have somewhere to go, and I don't really want them to know about it."

"You never told them about your past?" I gaped at her. "You can't keep that quiet forever."

"How? What?"

"Principal Powers sent a memo out to all the staff." She told me. "Just in case one of our jet packs got stolen."

"Didn't she tell you I jacked cars?"

Nurse Spex chuckled and walked out into the hallway. I heard some mumbled arguing before she came back in. "I think they're gone, but I'll check again for you in a minute. Now keep eating. It will help boost your energy."

I finished up the chocolate bar as she took off her glasses and scanned the hallway. "Oh dear, two of them are still waiting."

"Should I go out the window?"

"What kind of nurse would I be if I let my patients climb out the window?" Spex asked. "Now, Mr. Peace said something about invisibility when he brought you in?"

"I don't know if that would work."

"Why not? What kind of power is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you have your conscious powers and unconscious powers. For conscious powers, most of the time you would need to use energy or be able to think to use the power, like telekinesis. Unconscious powers, on the other hand, are always present, like super strength."

"This is definitely a conscious power."

"Then here, eat, eat!" She handed me another chocolate bar. "Now don't look at me like that. Chocolate is good for quick energy boosts." I made the mistake of shrugging before I shoved the candy bar in my mouth. "You might want to quit the shoulder movements for a while. Just let me know when you're ready to go."

I grabbed onto a nearby chair and slid my feet onto the floor. Gingerly, I stepped forward and let go of the chair.

"Yes!" I could walk. "Okay, just give me a second." I walked in front of the mirror, winced at how swollen an bruised my forehead was, and took a few deep breaths. I made myself invisible, and held in the color until I was sure it would stick. When it was done I looked over at Nurse Spex.

"Am I good?" I twirled.

"If you're in the room, then you're good. Now, follow me." She made her way toward the door. "What are you doing? Girl! Get back here!" She opened the door, still screaming, and I slipped out behind her. "Oh my, she jumped out of the window! What on earth is wrong with that girl?" I didn't wait to see Anne's and Layla's response, I started tiptoeing my way toward the bus. It took me about ten minutes to get myself there, and as soon as I walked on the bus I dropped my colors in surprise. "What the hell?"

"Just sit up front girl. This is for your protection."

I took my seat and turned around, staring at Lash, stuck in his cage.

It wasn't actually a cage, but it was closed to it. The whole back half of the bus was now sectioned off by a chain link fence, with a door in the aisle locked with a giant padlock.

"So now he has to go in that cage every time?"

"Nope. First one that gets here goes in the cage. But I swear if either of you two makes me wait just cause you don't want to go in I'll put you both in cages."

I gulped.

"Now, because of that little stunt you pulled, you two will be separated once you get there. Don't put up a fuss, you'll be placed with the money launderers." Said the driver.

"Mat ye ā?"_What?_

"I said no fuss!"

"Huh, so that's why Peace likes you." I heard Lash mumble.

"Shut up you asshole."

"Hey! She can't talk to me like that!"

"Yes she can. Now both of you, shut up."

We sat in silence the rest of the way. When we got there, the bus driver ordered me off first, then waited until Mr. Jones paired me up with some old creep before he let Lash go. The old guy, who wasn't really that old, probably mid 30s, immediately took charge and started leading me toward our location. He looked like an embezzler.

I hoped he was an embezzler.

When he stopped moving I began my rounds, picking up the cans and the trash lying around, and avoiding anything that looked like it would smell.

"What did you do?" Well, at least he didn't sound creepy.

"Stole cars."

"Why?"

"Had too."

"Sure kid. The tooth fairy made you do it, right?"

I glared at him. "What did you do?"

"Child porn."

"WHAT?!" I held my poker back as if it were a spear.

"Hey, put that down!" His eyes widened. "I was just kidding! I just laundered money from my old company."

"Oh." I lowered my poker, feeling foolish.

"Yeah, I never got indicted on the child porn thing."

"Get away from her!" I turned to see Lash running at us, his legs a tad bit do long, dragging his poor partner behind him. He looked ready to kill the guy.

"He was only kidding Lash!" The nerve of that kid! "Right?"

"Of course I was. I'm not some sicko, you little twerp. What did you do to get here? Shove some kid's head down a toilet?" The guy tried to act tough, but he was clearly frightened. Lash was shoving his poker in the prisoner's face, looking all to ready to use it. "And what kind of name is Lash?"

"I really don't think you should be talking right now. You know why I'm here? I helped rob a bank. Took a couple years off of some people's lives. Permanently ended others. Would you like to become one of the others?" Lash could sound really threatening when he wanted to, even though he was spewing complete BS. If I didn't know what really happened, I'd have believed him.

"N-no!" The prisoner stuttered.

"Good, then leave her alone." Lash dragged his partner away, but stopped when he was just about hundred feet off.

I had a feeling he'd be watching us the entire time. Pretentious prick.

My partner and I began to gather the trash in silence, being careful to keep as much space between us as possible. We went about an hour or so before he finally spoke.

"You could have warned me that Psycho was your little boyfriend."

"He's not!"

"And you let him control you like that?"

"He's just my...er... bodyguard. Yeah, that."

"And I'm Johnny Hoffa." He scoffed. "I bet he's probably the one that beat you up too."

He caught one look at my face and whistled. "Well I'll be. Is that why you two are separated?"

"Maybe."

"You should get yourself away from that kid. No good will come of it."

"Who are you supposed to be? Dear Abby?"

"No wonder he beat you." The prisoner muttered.

"Asshole."

"Bitch."

I shoved my poker at his throat. "He's not the only one that's psycho around here."

"You two are both nuts." He said as he swung his stick at my legs and flipped me onto my back. I could hear Lash's outrage.

"Idiot." I kicked up my legs as hard as I could, jerking him to the ground as well. "Lash, give it a rest!"

"No! He can't do that to you."

"Look, just shut up, alright?" I looked up at Lash from my spot on the ground, briefly wishing I was attached to him so I could knock him down too. "You don't own the rights to beating me up. Besides, we're even now, so just give it a rest, will you?"

"I didn't mean to beat you up!"

"You threw me into Stronghold! What did you think? He was made of pillows?"

"I just wanted to–" He paused and looked at our companions, who stared at us like we were nuts. "Not here. I'm not talking about this here. It's time to leave."

"We can't just walk away Lash."

"Yes we can." He pointed at my watch, then grabbed my hand to help lift me up. I got about an inch off the ground before I cried out in pain. He let go, eyes going wide. I took a deep breath, then stuck out my right hand, but he didn't move to grab it.

"Oh come on, you only messed up my left side." Lash hesitated, then grabbed onto my other arm and yanked me up, but refused to let go of my arm.

"How bad?"

"Look, it's not–" I took one look at his face, then pulled him down by the collar until my mouth was level with his ear. "You broke my arm. I have stitches in my head. My whole left side is bruised to the bone. Happy?"

"No." Lash walked away at an incredibly fast pace, dragging his partner behind him. I'd have to make him practice not stretching during his angry-walk.

"Man, what did you say to him?"

"Just what he wanted to hear."

"You'll have to teach me that one." He said as he began dragging me toward the buses. We got ourselves unhooked, and I stepped into the bus.

"Into the cage Roberts."

"Fine." I grumbled. Where had Lash gone?

We waited another couple of minutes before Lash showed up. He looked from me, to the driver, and back to me. "She shouldn't be in the cage."

"Well, you're not switching now. Sit down."

Lash took his seat, leaving me dumbfounded. What the hell was with him today? First he was his usually bitchy self, and now he was trying to be... protective?

"Are you schizo?"

"Are you an idiot?"

We fell silent as the bus crawled toward our homes. I stared out the window, barely paying attention to where we were, until I realized we passed the turn that usually took us to the Paper Lantern.

"Where are we going?" Lash must have noticed too.

"Dropping you off kid."

"Why not her?"

"She's in the cage. The person in the cage goes home last."

"But, that's not fair!"

"What's not fair about it boy? Shut up." _Boy! Ha! _

Thankfully he listened to the bus driver and sat there quietly. I watched him fidget through the cage as we inched closer and closer to his house. His twitching got worse as the houses got bigger. I never pictured Lash as a twitcher, but he was proving me oh so wrong.

We turned into Pinewood Manor, a little neighborhood that was just a few steps below a gated community. The people weren't rich, but they were definitely upper-middle class. After driving through a few winding roads we stopped in front of a large, two-story gray house with a lawn that just screamed 'I pay people to make my lawn look better then yours.' Lash dashed out of the bus and practically ran up the nicely pavered sidewalk to the front door. We started moving after Lash disappeared through the doorway. I watched the house as we pulled away, wondering what had freaked him out so bad. What was wrong with me knowing where he lived?

I tried, and failed, to come up with an answer along the way back to the Lantern. When we arrived I let myself out of the cage and headed up the back stairs. I dropped off my stuff and looked at myself in the mirror. My forehead was puffy and swollen, and was an ugly greenish-purple color. I winced after I tossed my shirt to the floor; my whole left arm and shoulder was one giant bruise. After throwing on my work clothes, and getting rid of the bruising that showed, I took the colors out of my hair and walked down to the kitchen.

And crashed right into Warren Peace.

"Mat ye ā nei jo gán di ni do?" _What are you doing here? _I squeaked.

"Leigh haei boon zhi nu" _You're__the__niece_?

"You didn't answer my question." I hissed after making sure my Aunt wasn't there. She had forbidden English in the kitchen.

"Ngoh gung juk ni do, tsung ming yat." _I work here, smart one._

My jaw dropped as I remembered Will and Layla's hushed conversations on my first night. "Zhou ma ta men dou!" _Damn them!_

"Bin go a?" _Who?_

"Will and Layla." Warren's eyes narrowed, and he was about to speak before my Aunt tore into the kitchen.

"Leih jouh matyeh keih haidouh a nui jai?" _What are you standing there for girl?_ She paused. "Mat yeh yau nei gao dim do nei ge tau." _What have you done to your head?_

"Mou ye, a yi." _Nothing, Aunt. _

"Ji hui do gong fu." _Then go to work_. I quickly donned an apron and left the kitchen. Warren followed me, bringing out two plates of food for an elderly couple by the door.

"Which tables don't you have?" I whispered.

"Chuai de zhi ni zi ji." _Figure it out yourself. _

"Fine, be a jerk." I scanned the tables and chose a group of 5 kids that looked like they just sat down. "Hi there, can I take your order?"

"_He_was our waiter." One of the girls pouted.

"Well, he's kind of busy so I'll be taking over you guys for tonight. Can I get you guys some drinks to start?" They rattled off their drinks of choice: diet cokes for two of the girls, the third little waif surprisingly ordered a Shirley Temple, and root beer for the two guys. When I went into the kitchen to pour them up Warren cornered me.

"That was my table!" It took me a minute to figure out why Warren was less scary then usual. He had his hair pulled back! It made him look almost...adorable? No wonder he kept his hair long at school.

"So what?" I finally responded. "I'm giving you a break."

"I'd rather have their tip."

"Then you should have told me which tables you had covered. Now if you'll excuse me, I have drinks to make." He huffed and left the kitchen as I started getting the teens' orders. I brought them back out just in time to catch Warren sneaking a look at my table.

Or rather, at Miss Shirley Temple.

I was smiling as I passed around the drinks and took their orders. I spent the next half hour making rounds and avoiding Warren, who was still peeved from before.

"Hey, can we get the check?" One of the boys called out from group. I went over to collect their plates, and noticed that the Shirley Temple girl was trying unbelievably hard not to smile every time she looked up and saw Warren. I brought the plates back into the kitchen and dumped them onto the counter before printing out their check. I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and scribbled down a note, then put it on top of the check in the little book. I walked back out to the dining room and handed the check to Shirley Temple. I saw her eyes go wide as she opened the check, and deftly swiped the note.

"It can't be that much, can it?" One of the boys asked as she passed the bill around. I made my other rounds as the group gathered their money.

"Ngoh yau li wu hon nei." _I have a gift for you._

"Jing kok." _Right._Warren rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen. I went back to the table and collected the check from Shirley Temple, and waited until I reached the kitchen before opening it. Sure enough, there was a little strip of paper with a phone number and a name. I walked over to Warren and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?"

"Here's your tip." I laughed as his eyes widened and his cheeks reddened. Who knew that kid could blush?

"Doh je." _Thank you._


	7. Realization

"Nui jai, qu chu can yu wu." _Girl, take out the trash_.

Leave it to Aunt Wu to break up a touching moment with something so disgusting. Complying, I grabbed the trash bag out of the huge can and tied it up. I flicked on the alley light and dragged the bag out toward the dumpster, keeping the bag as far away from my nose as possible. As I lifted up the lid I heard something knock into one of the smaller cans.

"Stupid cat." I mumbled as I brightened the alley light and walked over to the other cans. I managed to catch a glimpse of a tail. "Here kitty kitty."

"Meow. Nice try, but I think you need glasses."

I looked up past the trash cans to see Lash standing near the opening of the alley. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you we needed to talk."

"So you choose a dark alley, nice."

"Well, thanks to you the alley isn't that dark, and I was going to go inside but I saw you out here."

"Well, I guess that's good for you since Warren is inside and he'd probably toast you."

"Why, you two all lovey-dovey already?"

"No, but I just scored him a date with a hot girl. He'd pretty much do anything I asked of him." I hoped he'd believe me.

"You're not good at bluffing, are you?"

"Not really." I told him, hoping Warren would come out and actually fry his ass.

"Well, can you shut that thing already? It stinks." Lash said, pointing at the dumpster.

"Do it yourself."

"It's not my job."

I walked back over to the dumpster and threw in the garbage before closing the lid.

"Happy? Not get out of here."

"No. We need to–"

"Talk, yes I know, but you know what? I have nothing to say to you. So either _you_start talking or I'm going to leave."

"Fine!" Lash leaned against the wall across from me and slid to the ground. I mimicked him, and sat back against the dumpster. He stared at me for a good minute before he started speaking. "You don't look hurt."

I dropped my colors and flared the alley light, giving him a good view.

"Oh." Lash paused.

"Well?"

"Give me a minute! I've never done this before." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"All of that for 'I'm sorry'?

"Would you let me finished or should I just go?" I fell silent. I kind of wanted to know where he was going with this. "Okay then. Look, I didn't mean to hurt you." I scoffed. "Seriously. I wasn't thinking. I just...I just wanted to win. It was bad enough I lost to those two last year and the whole Royal Pain thing failed, I just wanted to prove I was still good at something. Save the Citizen used to be my thing, you know? But without Speed..."

"You were stuck with me."

"Yeah. That invisible thing was pretty cool, by the way. But anyway, I just stopped thinking. Stronghold had the upper hand and I just kind of..."

"Used me as a baseball bat."

"Yeah. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't know you had no invulnerability what-so-ever. Most kids have at least some. Even Speed did."

"Well, I'm not Speed, smart one!"

"I know that! I just...I'm not good at this!"

"Why are you even trying to apologize? Is it just because I'm a Hero and not some 'worthless sidekick'." I used air quotes.

"No. I would have apologized even if you were a sidekick."

"I find that hard to believe."

"It's true. It's not like I ever actually hurt any of the sidekicks. I just had fun with them. I terrorized them, stole some lunch money, put a few heads in toilets and bodies in locker. You're the first one I actually hurt."

"And that makes everything you did to those kids alright?"

"Yes! No. I don't know!" He got up and started pacing. "It's just what I did. I'm not some sappy little kid who loves everybody and just wants to be friends. I was the king of that stupid school."

"Lash, you weren't a king, just a bully."

"You weren't even there." He sneered. "How would you know?"

"Because you just described yourself as one."

"Whatever. Look do you accept my apology or what?"

"That's it? I'm supposed to just say, 'Okay, let's go be best friends.'"

"I don't know! You're infuriating, you know that?"

"Thank you." I told him as the kitchen door opened.

"Kira? You stuck in the dumpster?" Warren asked as he walked into the alley. He spotted Lash and his arms immediately burst into flames.

I jumped up. "Warren, stop." But he took one look at the bruising I forgot to recolor and started throwing fireballs at Lash. Lash dodged them all while I waved my hand and removed all the light from the alley, only leaving Warren's flames with a dim glow so Lash could see them if Warren choose to keep fighting.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Hero rule number 1, don't expose your powers where people can see you! Lash just came over to apologize, nothing more."

"That kid nearly killed you today and you're letting him near you?"

"I said I was sorry!" Lash practically screamed.

"Sorry? Like that would help any."

"Look I already explained myself once, and I'm not explaining myself to you. Kira's forgiven me and that'll all I need."

"No she didn't!"

"Yes, I did." I could feel both boys turn to look at me, equally shocked.

"That's all I needed to hear." Lash said as he stumbled his way out of the alley. I turned the light back on just in time to see him turn the corner.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You already asked that." I groaned as I stood up.

"I'll keep asking until you answer me."

"I liked you better as the brooding silent type."

"Just tell me why."

"I don't know, okay? At least he's trying to be a better person. He had the guts to come here and apologize and he stood up for me today. That counts for something in my book."

"When did he stand up for you?"

"Look, can we just drop this?"

"No. I know we've asked this before, but are you crazy? First you try to be his friend, then he uses you to beat up Will, then you jumped out of the freaking Nurse's Office's window, and now you're letting him corner you in a dark alley so he can 'apologize'?"

"No crazier then Layla when she first started bugging you. And at least I know that Lash won't kill me. Now will you please trust me on this one?"

"If you keep going near him one of us will follow you. It's already been decided."

"I'm glad you guys care so much about me, but trust me, I'll be fine." I told him as I colored away my bruises. "Just promise me one thing?"

"What?"

"Don't make me choose" I paused, "and call that girl."

"Fine."

"And I'm sorry about your shirt, do you want me to get the stain out?"

"That's okay, I already trashed it." Warren said as he walked back into the kitchen and slammed the door behind him.

* * *

"Okay, I have problems." I started once Mellie picked up the phone. "Your favorite kind." 

"GIANT ROBOT?"

"Did you hear that noise? That was the 'facepalm exasperated sigh.'"

"Fine then, what is it?"

"Boys." I had to hold the phone away from my ear as she screamed.

"FINALLY! Is it Warren? You have to tell me everything!"

"Okay, first off, it's not Warren. Well, he's part of the problem, but he's only Penguin's umbrella. Lash is the Penguin."

"The one that tried to take over the school? Out of all the guys in that school you had to choose to like the evil one?"

"No. Yes. Hold on will you? So I like him, but not in the way you wish. He's funny when he's not being a jackass, and he's trying to be a good guy. But everyone still hates him, and he kind of threw me into Will today."

"Threw you?"

"Yeah. Broke my arm, though that's fixed now, and bruised me up pretty bad."

"Broke your arm?"

"He didn't know I didn't have any invincibility. And he apologized and I think he really meant it. But now everyone else is freaking out."

"Wait, so is he abusive or not?"

"I don't think so. Me actually getting hurt freaked him out pretty bad."

"Well, I can't help you."

"Why not?"

"Because it sounds like you've already decided. But if he hurts you again I swear to God I will kill him."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

Things got better with Warren as the week went on. Everyday I showed up to school alive and well, and by Thursday the bruises were mostly gone. And his date apparently went well, so that must have given me enough bonus points to get him to talk to me normally. 

The rest of the group took my 'insanity' a little better. They still made the jokes, but they didn't freak when I went to sit with Lash at lunch every other day or so. Hell, Lash freaked out more the first time then the rest of them did.

"So, you're not sitting with the Rubber Band today?"

The jokes, I feared, would never end.

"No Maj, besides, I don't even know where he is."

"Probably sneaking around with his other girlfriend." Zach guessed.

"What girlfriend? Kira's the only one crazy enough to touch him."

I spluttered, tried to find a response in the back of my head somewhere, and failed miserably.

"See, she knows it's true! Look at her face!"

"Will, do you want your clothes to disappear?"

"Uh, not really."

"Then shut up, will ya?"

"You're cruel, you know that?"

"Uhuh." I mumbled as I gnawed off a piece of my sandwich.

"So do you guys want to go to the mall after school? I need to pick out a dress for homecoming."

"Uh Layla, homecoming is like a month and a half away." Anna said. "What's the rush?"

"Yeah, especially after what happened last year. You'd be better off going to buy a pair of combat boots."

"Combat boots are very stylish Zach." I told him before Layla interrupted us.

"Well, I want to get my dress now. So how about it?"

"I'll go." Magenta told her, and Anna gave her a nod. All the boys opted out.

"Well, what about you, Kira? Or do you have to disappear again after school?" I choked on my sandwich.

"It's Thursday, Layla, she only disappears Monday, Wednesday, and Friday." Ethan pointed out as Anna thumped me on the back.

_Oh shit._

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked meekly.

"You actually thought we wouldn't notice the empty seat on the bus?" Warren chimed in.

"Yes?" The others groaned and looked at me expectantly. "Well, I kind of have to get tutoring after school to catch up on what I missed last year or Powers would flunk me."

They stared at me. For a second I thought they would pick up the lie, but they all started laughing.

"_Tutoring?_All the sneaking around for _tutoring?_" Will asked.

"Kind of stupid, huh?"

"Very stupid." Layla confirmed. "So are you coming?"

_That was close._ Thank you Mrs. Edwards. I never knew English would come in handy so quickly

"Sure." I reluctantly agreed. "I just gotta know, though, are malls really like the ones on tv?" I paused. And waited. "Could you not stare at me like that?"

"You bring it upon yourself." Maj informed me.

"Thanks." I said as I took another bite out of my sandwich. I looked up from the group when I felt another presence join us.

It was a tall, leggy blond, who looked way too sweet and innocent. There was no way she wasn't up to something. The rest of the group practically froze when they saw her arrive, except for Warren, who stood to meet her. Anna and I looked around, trying to figure out what was going on as the two stared each other down. We watched as the blond leaned into Warren and whispered something in his ear. Then she cackled like the wicked witch and practically skipped away as Warren growled and lit up.

"Warren!" Layla hissed as he began to stalk away, lit up like a roman candle, right out of the cafeteria. The silence that had fallen over the cafeteria faded away after the doors slammed shut.

"Okay, what just happened?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"That was Freeze-Girl."

"Who?"

"Melinda Frost, Ice Queen on all levels, ex-girlfriend of Warren."

"How come I haven't heard of this before?"

"It's kind of a touchy subject, since, you know, none of us really enjoy getting burned." Layla informed me.

"Well, he's not here now, so tell!"

"Fine. Warren and Melinda got together after the whole homecoming fiasco last year. Things were going great for a while. They went out for the rest of the year." Magenta said.

"They were really cute."

"My story Layla. Anyway, they seemed to be really happy together, I mean, Warren was using complete sentences on a daily basis. But Summer rolled around and Warren decided to surprise Melinda with a trip up to New York to see a show."

I sank in my seat.

"So they drove up there and saw a matinee and apparently Melinda started bitching out on him after the show. She started screaming and broke up with him, and even froze him while he didn't try to fight her back. The freak totally lost it. She bailed on him and just left him alone in the city."

"That's horrible!"

"I know." Layla agreed. "The poor guy. Lost his girlfriend and got his car stolen on the same day."

My face paled. "What?"

_It had a driver_

"Right after she dumped him he was just driving around when some guy on a motorcycle smashed his window."

_Out-of-state plates_

"The guy knocked him out cold with his gun. After Melinda practically froze him to death his invincibility was basically gone."

_Black leather jacket _

"So the guy got away with the car, but luckily when Warren called the police they had already gotten his car back. Someone ratted on the gang or something." Magenta looked at me and blinked. "Are you okay?"

_There is still a chance. _"What kind of car was it?" I tried to sound as normal as possible, but my voice wavered.

"Old muscle car. Fixed up real nice though."

"It was some kind of Barracuda." Zach informed me. "Hey, what?"

I ran.

The halls were empty and my footsteps echoed against the lockers. Someone up there hated me. They had to hate me. Nothing this cruel would ever happen to a person the Gods liked. As I ran into the main hallway, and Coach Boomer entered my view, I vanished myself, wishing more then anything that my shoes didn't squeak against the tile. What good were powers that couldn't even get rid of that annoying squeak? What good were powers destroyed friendships? I needed to get rid of mine, if just for a little while.

I made a sharp left and made myself visible as I neared the detention room. I managed to catch Principal Powers just as she was leaving the room. Her eyes widened as I ran at her.

"Can I have detention?" I practically begged as I tried to wipe the tears from my face.

"What on Earth? Why?"

"Please."

"I can't just give you detention, Kira."

"Then give it to me for skipping class."

"But you haven't."

"I will if you don't give me detention." She closed her eyes, and looked as if she were fighting a battle within herself.

"Fine." She sighed and opened the door. I practically ran into the bright, white embrace of normalness.

"Kira?"

The last thing I heard was Powers shutting the door behind me before I started bawling.

Yeah, the Gods definitely hate me.

"Kira what's wrong?" Of all the people who could have had detention at that very moment, it had to be Lash? He got up out of his seat as I slid to the floor. I rested my back against the wall and buried my face into my arms. Lash slid down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Seriously, tell me."

"Can't you...just shut up...and let me cry?" I asked between sniffles. Lash thankfully complied and just held on to my fingers as my body shook. Every time I tried to calm myself down, my mind replayed Johnny smacking Warren in the face with his gun, Johnny shoving Warren out of his car and onto the pavement, and Warren melting my face off when he finds out.

Needless to say I kept weeping.

After a while, Lash rested his head on mine and began to hum. It was impossible to make out what he was humming over my sobs, but the vibrations were comforting. I couldn't help but giggle when I finally figured out the song.

"The other night dear," Sniff. "As I lay sleeping."

"I dreamed I held you in my arms."

"You're supposed to actually sing it, you spoil sport."

"Hey, humming is as far as I go." Lash said.

"You know how depressing that song actually is, right?"

"Yeah, but it always works for my sister, so I figured it'd work for you." He told me. "So what's wrong?"

"I fucked up." He didn't say anything, just waited for my explanation. "I hurt someone who really didn't deserve it."

"I'm sure it wasn't you're fault."

"I helped steal Warren's car on the day his girlfriend almost killed him. How is that not my fault?"

Lash pulled away from me and turned me to face him. "You what?"

"I was a car thief. That's why I'm here. The last car I stole was Warren's, and he is going to murder me when he finds out."

"He doesn't know?"

"None of them know."

"Wow." Lash said as he gave me a tight hug.

"What's that for?"

"You need it. Can you do me one favor though?"

"What?"

"Find a way not to die. I don't want to be stuck with Larry the Gambler for the rest of the year."

"Thanks for caring."

* * *

Principal Powers let us out after the last bell. We were careful to pick ourselves up off the floor and sit down in our respective chairs before she arrived. We could tell she was surprised to see us both sitting quietly in our seats, breathing. I went to my locker to drop off my stuff, then wove in and out of the pack of kids crowding the hallway until I reached Layla's locker. Anna and Magenta were waiting with her, and they stared at me as I approached. 

"Um, hi."

"Feeling better?" Layla asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, sorry I freaked out before."

"What was that about?"

"I just, uh, got sick. My stomach had been bothering me all day."

"Oh." Magenta said as she rolled her eyes. "We'll let you come if you tell us the truth."

"How about I promise to tell you the truth eventually and you still let me go?"

"Eventually? You're going to have to do better then that."

"Well, can you at least give me a little bit of time? I can't really explain what's going on right now." The look on my face, combined with my still puffy red eyes, must have been enough, for they all looked at each other and nodded.

"Come on, we can still catch the bus." I followed behind the others girls, and quickly realized how awkward the trip down was going to be, especially with the guys there. I took my seat next to Ethan, and could tell he was bubbling with questions.

"Don't ask." I muttered as the bus took off. He looked at the others guys, then shrugged and settled back down in his seat. After we got dropped off at Layla's stop, we piled into her mom's hybrid car. The other girls chatted endlessly as we drove toward the Maxville Mall. I sat quietly, barely listening to their conversations, only paying enough attention to know when to laugh. When we pulled into the parking lot my jaw dropped. The mall was the size of about 5 Sky Highs put together! The other girls started giggling at my face.

"It gets better."Anna said when Layla's mom dropped us off at the main entrance after handing Layla a couple of bills. We walked inside and I had to stop myself from gasping. "I love how someone could transform into a giant rock monster and it would shock you less than a mall would. It's so cute."

"How many stores does this place have?"

"About a hundred or two." Layla told me. "Dresses first?"

We followed Layla into a little boutique that was filled with hundreds of dresses. We split up and started scouring the racks for all things cute.

"How about this Layla?" Anna held up a short little dress that would have had some potential if it wasn't baby puke-green.

"Are you color-blind?" Magenta asked.

"Who cares about color when we have Kira?" Anna asked, and the other girls lit up. They started grabbing dresses left and right.

"Woah. Slow down guys! I'm not a machine. Find ones you actually like first."

The girls grumbled, but put a few of the dresses back. After about ten minutes we had collected a good 30 dresses for Layla, and made our way toward the dressing rooms. We sent Layla into the room and sat down along the wall as she began to change.

"So how formal are we going for this?"

"About 2 steps below prom." Magenta said. "And two steps below hookers."

"Okay," I said as Layla walked out in Anna's dress. We looked at each other and grimaced. "Not even I can help that."

"Next!"

The routine went on for about an hour. Ones that we liked went back into the piles to try on again later, and the ones we booed got tossed on the racks. Eventually, it all came down to two dresses. One was a cute little shirred mini, an unfortunate shade of brown, with spaghetti halter straps and a decorated neckline, that I could totally picture Layla in if I could work my magic on it. The other was black babydoll dress that had a pleated bodice above a fitted mesh inset and a flowy above-the-knee length skirt. A lighter tone would suit Layla better, but the dress was awesome.

I kind of hoped she would choose the shirred one.

"I like the mini." Anna spoke up as Layla held the two dresses up next to her. "The weird draping thing is cool, but I hate the color for your skin."

"Agreed." Magenta and I said at the same time.

"I kind of do too. The other one I love too, but I don't have the boobs for it." Layla sighed. "Can I have some help, Color Queen?"

I looked around the hallway for the dressing rooms. There was a camera right above the door aimed at where we were sitting. I got up and walked passed Layla into her dressing room and looked up. From where I was standing, there was no other camera that could look into the dressing room.

"Okay, come in here."

"Why can't we just do it out here?"

"Camera in the corner. Even if it's black and white it would still pick up the color change. No use taking risks."

"Sure." Layla said as I walked out of the room so she could change. She called me back in when she finished putting on the dress. "So I was thinking green."

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked as I turned her dress a bright emerald green. We both looked at each other and shuttered. Her skin and emerald did not mix. I darkened it up until it hit a nice dark forest green.

"I like it."

"Me too." Layla agreed as she spun around and opened the door so Anna and Magenta could see.

"That's it."

"Perfection." They cheered, and Anna even clapped.

I think it's because this meant food.

"Uh Layla, do you mind if I try on that other dress?"

"Go ahead." She handed me the dress after I changed hers back to brown, and I squealed. I ran into the other dressing room and slipped into the dress.

It was beautiful...until I looked at the price tag. I groaned.

"Let us see." I came out of the room and twirled, and they cheered again.

"You're not leaving without that dress."

I showed them the price tag.

"Ouch."

"Yeah. I think I'll wait."

"Maybe they'll put it on hold for you." Anna suggested

"Maybe." I said as I went back into the dressing room and switched back into my jeans and shirt. We gathered Layla's dresses and threw them all onto the clothing racks, and I followed her up to the counter while Anna and Magenta ran off to the food court. The uptight lady behind the register rang up Layla first, and frowned at the mess of twenty dollar bills. When Layla was finished she stared at me clutching my dress.

"Would you be able to hold this dress for me?"

"We do not hold things."

"Not even for a day?"

"No." She held out her arms and I surrendered the garment. Layla patted me on the shoulder and led me down to the food court. "Don't worry, it's nothing a good giant pizza pretzel can't cure."

* * *

**SO LONG! I hope it was worth the wait. I'll put the links to the pictures of the two dresses in my profile since I can't get them to work here. Remember, Reviews and Flames are much loved.**


	8. I'm So Lost

**Another longish one! Reviews and Flames are greatly appreciated.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High, nor do I profit in any way from this story. **

* * *

I haven't been able to look Warren in the eye since I found out. I think I would have cracked if it wasn't for the girls. They had realized pretty early on that my problems lied with Warren, since every time I saw him I either avoided him or left the room, and had done their best to take the attention off me whenever we both shared the same room. Sometimes they would throw me under the bus when they got frustrated over me not telling them, but mostly they understood this was something I needed some time with.

Unfortunately, Warren figured out something was up pretty early on too. I soon came to dread Power Development, especially on days where Anna was absent. I could act normal enough, but he always knew something was off. Lunch was easier, since there were more people to hide behind, but the guys always wound up taking Warren's side if something came up. A few weeks after the Meltdown, Zach even disagreed with Magenta to side with Warren.

I know, I was shocked too.

Surprisingly, it was Lash who helped me deal with it the most, only partly because he was the only one who actually knew the cause of the MD. At lunch he had abandoned his table for a spot under a tree out front, which, of course, is strictly forbidden, but it is hard to get caught when you can't be seen. So every day before lunch I would turn him invisible, and sometimes I would join him if I didn't feel like facing the group.

This morning was beginning to feel like one of those days.

I flunked a quiz in Mad Science on fusion beams, and as soon as I reached PD I could tell Warren was testy. Mrs. Devuex had rounded up those of us who had projectile powers and was putting us through target practice. But where everyone else had a whole dummy to hit, I had to hit the dummy's eyes.

"Jin shun." _This sucks._

"Sow seng." _Shut up._

"My God, ENGLISH PLEASE." Said the frustrated twig girl in between us, who was apparently trying to shoot razor-sharp fingernails at the dummy in front of her. She had really bad aim.

"Shut up." Warren reiterated, causing her face to redden and me to laugh. The girl huffed and walked away, leaving me and Warren standing next to each other. I immediately turned back to face my dummy, gathered two balls of bright white light, and lobbed them at the dummy.

"Kira, you cannot just toss your enemy a light ball. Throw it." Mrs. Devuex said as I gathered another ball and threw it as hard as I could. It hit the dummy and vanished, like always.

"I don't see the point to this. I can't hurt anybody with these things."

"Oh shut up," Warren scoffed. "You can blind people, which is a more offensive power than half the kids here have. And besides, all you have to do is look scary, you si pook gaai."

"Calm down Warren." Mrs. Devuex commanded, then turned to me. "He's right. If you learn to make your light balls and beams look deadly, then you'll have a huge advantage, especially when you're first starting out. If the enemy doesn't know you're harmless, and you look deadly, then he is going to think you can kill him and do all he can to avoid you. Light beam, now." I formed a ball of light in between my hands beamed it at the dummy. "Think mean." I morphed the color to a deep red, with some black thrown in. "Lightning."

"Lightning?"

"Make it cackle." I tried to make the beam look like it was cackling, but I couldn't pull it off. I tried a few more times, but nothing came close to lightning. Mrs. Devuex frowned. "Well, keep practicing."

After she left I made a few creepy looking light balls, mostly to keep myself focused on something other than Warren.

"So what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Cut the crap, Crayola."

For a minute I was speechless. I had finally earned my nickname, and it had to come up _now?_ I looked up and saw the strange half-smile on his face. He had been saving this nickname for the right time, and I could tell it was meant to be some kind of peace offering, even though he doesn't understand why I'd been acting weird. I swear I was a second away from telling him when my eyes skirted to the right and I caught a look at his charred dummy.

"There is nothing wrong."

* * *

"I am the biggest coward ever." I told Lash as I reached his locker. 

"I've seen worse."

"Thanks." We began pushing out way through the crowd toward the library. There was a little alcove near the library door that was a blindspot for the cameras, and I'd rather the security guards think we were making out then using our powers, which (outside of class) was strictly forbidden for the two of us. Lash ducked in first, where I colored him invisible before walking in myself.

"Hey!" I squealed. Lash hadn't left the alcove, and it was a tight squeeze.

"What? To close?" He laughed as I vanished.

"Just a little." I poked him in the neck and walked out of the alcove. He started to protest but I cut him off. "Quiet! They can still hear you." Lash complied, and we began to walk toward to main entrance. Well, I did anyway, I wasn't sure he followed until I saw the main door open before me. "Quite the gentleman, aren't you?"

"I'm back here." I felt his breath on the back of my neck and jumped.

"Jackass."

He laughed and let the door slam shut. I sighed and walked outside to the tree. "You're not good at being stealthy, are you?"

"Stealthy people are wimps." Lash told me. "Now why are you the biggest coward ever?"

"I had the perfect opportunity to tell him, but I didn't."

"Why didn't you?"

"I looked at the charred dummy he was using for target practice."

"Not a good idea."

"Yeah, I know. I hate this."

"Quit bitching and just tell him."

"You say the same thing everyday, and you know what, it doesn't help any."

"Should I just stop talking then?"

"But then I won't be able to find you." He didn't respond. "Lash? Great, just great." I wasn't so good at the invisible thing yet, and I couldn't make him reappear unless I knew where the hell he was. I patted the group near my left side, where he had been sitting, and frowned. "You know, talking to thin air is tolerable when you at least know someone is listening. Talking to nothing is downright frustrating." I thought I heard a giggle, but it could have just been the wind. I waited another ten minutes or so in silence before getting up to walk back into the school. He could find a way to make himself visible again.

I got about ten feet from the tree when I was tackled to the ground. Lash and I wrestled for a minute or two before I got out of his grasp. "What the hell, Lash."

"Sorry, couldn't resist. You're getting stronger."

"Not strong enough. How'd you even find me?"

"You flatten the grass where you sit or walk."

"Oh." I said, feeling like an idiot for missing something so obvious.

"So you wanna come over to my house after trash duty?" If I was drinking something I would have just done the greatest spit-take ever.

"Your house?" I sputtered, not believing what I just heard. Lash still twitched whenever we got near his house, though it was getting less noticeable.

"You know, that place I live in? It's got some walls, windows, a door–"

"I know what a house is." I ran through the possibilities in my head. This could either go really good, or really bad. "I'll have to ask my Aunt, but if she says yes then I'll go."

"You actually need permission?"

"If I don't want my Aunt to kill me I do." I told him. "How am I going to get to your house? It's pretty far from mine and the bus driver won't let the two of us off at the same place."

"I'll pick you up after I get dropped off." He said. "Now let's get going." We both got up and started walking toward the main doors. I kept an eye on his footprints to make sure he was following.

We had almost reached the hallway with the alcove when I got the feeling that I was alone. Kids were starting to wander the hallways, including one group of freshmen sidekicks that were running out of the boy's bathroom.

"Oh God." I muttered and ran into the bathroom. A small little freshman was getting a swirly from the big, bad, invisible pain in the ass. "Put him down. Now."

"Girls aren't allowed in the boy's room."

"And you're not allowed to put someone's head in the toilet. Now put him down or I'm not coming over later."

"Fine." Lash grumbled and put down the kid. He looked around, trying to see who was torturing him, then gave up and ran out of the bathroom. I made us both visible, and he avoided my eyes. "Don't look at me like that, okay?" He said when he finally looked up.

"You do know Powers will send you right back to jail if you start doing that again, right?"

"I know, but he was such an easy target!" I shook my head and was about to leave the bathroom when Lash's hand gripped my arm.

"What?" I snarled.

"You're about to visibly leave the boy's bathroom."

* * *

"Who're you pretending to punch? Satan?" Zach joked as he held the punching bag for me in Unarmed Combat. 

"Satan's little brother." I punched harder, using the techniques we'd been practicing for the past week. Lash was right, I was getting stronger. Zach was wincing more then usual.

"Use your feet more, Kira."

"I'm sorry, I enjoy walking." I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Mr. Perkins." I said sweetly as I gave the bag a kick.

"Don't just kick willy-nilly, use your forms. Follow after me. " He started clapping and calling out orders on the same beat. "Jab, jab, kick, jab! Jab, jab, jab, kick..." I followed his commands, punching extra hard to make up for my kicks, hoping that he'd get tired of clapping soon. I growled when sweat began to burn my eyes. The clapping stopped when Zach started giggling at my pained expression.

"Your turn Glow Worm. Switch." Zach's eyes went from me to Mr. Perkins, and waited for his nod of approval before taking my place. I grabbed the bag as Zach began pummeling it with his fists. Zach grunted with every punch, and bounced around like a boxer on crack. Mr. Perkins shook his head and walked over to Layla, who was frantically waving her hand in the air.

Zach and I switched off two more times before Perkins let us go to the showers.

Showers had always been a thing to be dreaded in the past. Kids were lucky to get a working one at my old high school, and none of them had hot water. If by some miracle you did get hot water, one of the other girls would see the steam and kick you out of your stall. But at Sky High, showers were heaven, and it was all thanks to Royal Pain.

I got this story a little while after my first Royal Pain story. In her junior year, Gwen ran for Student Body President against another popular girl. The race was a tie throughout the beginning, until Gwen announced her platform: new showers for the gym and practice facilities, made none other than the technopath herself. Needless to say she won, and the showers she created were amazing. The students could select their own type of shampoo and conditioner, if they wished, and afterwards the girls could even choose a scent to be sprayed with out of hundreds of options. The automatic showers lasted ten minutes, 9 minutes of nice, hot water, and 1 minute of drying. The shower actually had some weird drying mechanism that left you squeaky clean and ready to slip back into your clothes.

It was amazing. That girl could have taken over the Earth and no one would have cared if she made everyone one of those showers.

* * *

Trash collecting was worse than usual. I was paired up with Bob the Embezzler, again, and the spot we were assigned was disgusting. And to top it all off, at least 10 cars threw something at us. Bob got the worst of it: he got hit in the face by half of a Blimpie sub. I only suffered minor scummage, with a couple of cigarettes tossed at me, and an open can of root beer. 

When 6 rolled around Bob practically ran us back to Mr. Jones. While we waited on line to get our shackles taken off, Lash and his old dude slid up behind us, startling me. Lash hadn't bothered us all day, and I practically forgot he was there.

"My house?" He hissed and poked me right in between my shoulder blades. I gave a slight nod. "Alright, go in the cage." I shrugged, shook my freed ankles, and walked onto the bus. I sat directly behind the cage, and sighed as the driver locked me in. Lash walked on a moment later and took the seat directly in front of me. Usually he chose a seat up front, or as far away from me as possible. I didn't mind it that much, since I was usually sweaty and tired after work. But him sitting right in front of me while I was sweaty and tired? Not cool.

"You smell fruity." Lash announced to the seat in front of him.

Thank you, showers.

"Thanks, I guess?" I mumbled back.

"Is he bothering you?" The bus driver called from the front of the bus.

"No!" I responded quickly. The last time I said yes to that question the result was not pretty. The driver mumbled an 'okay' and made a sharp right into Lash's neighborhood. We almost reached his house when a thought struck me.

"How am I getting back here? I don't have a car."

"Steal one."

"That is not funny."

"Don't worry, I'll come pick you up." Lash told me as we stopped in front of his house. He loped off the bus and was through the front door before I could say 'okay.' The bus peeled away from the curb and headed back to the main roads. We were about halfway to the Lantern when the bus was beeped from behind. The driver shouted a couple curses as I turned around.

We were being trailed by a 2000 amazon green Mustang GT coupe, suped up with a body kit and black tinted windows. It could have easily passed us on either side, but it choose to stay right behind us by about two feet.

"Assholes don't deserve nice cars." I muttered, completely prepared to give the car a nice design on the hood if it honked at us again. I turned back around in my seat when the driver made a sharp left, and the car honked again.

"Make him shut up!"

"What do you want me to do, flash him and see if that shuts him up?"

"I'm not legally allowed to answer that."

"Gross." The mustang honked again and I stared at the car. I was about to paint a nice pink flower on the hood when the driver's side window rolled down and hand shot out, and kept going until it hit the bus's back window. I gave Lash the finger and colored his hood with the girliest hearts I could muster before turning around. About ten minutes later we finally reached the Lantern. The driver let me out of the cage and I grabbed my bag and rushed off the bus. Lash beeped again as I ran up the side steps into our apartment. I dumped my stuff on my bed, grabbed a sweatshirt, and flew back down the stairs before my aunt could see me. I practically ran into Lash at the bottom of the stairs.

"Fix my car."

"Let me drive."

"No."

"Then let's go." He grimaced, but followed me back to his car. I hopped into the passenger seat after he unlocked the doors. I waited for him to start the car, but after a minute I got tired of waiting and looked at him. He was staring at me. "What?"

"Fix my car. I can't drive it like this." He was almost begging. I couldn't stand it. A sigh escaped my lips as I waved my hand and got rid of the hearts. Lash smiled and started up the engine. The sound that came out of the engine almost made me moan.

"Where did you get this car?"

"Been saving up since I was a little kid. Did all the work myself."

"How fast does it go?"

"How should I know? Speeding is against–"

"Lash."

"I usually get around 5.3 in 0-60."

"Damn." I said in appreciation.

"I know. It's great for a starter car. My Corvette will be so much better."

"Why would you wait to get a Corvette?"

"My dear, you do not just start off with a Corvette. You must first get a car, a completely respectable one, that you can feel out and maybe make a few mistakes on." Lash explained. I turned on the radio and tested out his subwoofers, before finding a good station. We road in silence the rest of the way, listening to the music and feeling the vibrations from the bass. When we got to his house he pulled the car right into the garage. The white walls were covered with different tools and car parts. Once we got out of the car, who's name was apparently Dolores, I helped Lash throw on the cover. He led me into his house, and I stuck close to him so I wouldn't get lost. It was honestly the largest house I had ever been in. Way bigger then Layla's or Will's.

"Wait here." Lash said as we reached the kitchen. He went down another hallway and left me standing awkwardly in the kitchen. All the appliances looked brand new, the counter tops were spotless, the floor was polished white marble.

It looked like no one lived there. It was kind of creepy

"HI!" I jumped, and looked down at the little girl who had screamed at me. "I'm Gaia."

"Hi Gaia." I said. She was the cutest little thing I had ever seen. She couldn't have been more then 7 or 8, with long black hair and a heart-shaped face. She had big brown eyes and a little pixie nose. She was wearing a grass-stained pair of overalls, and her bare feet were brown with dirt. "I'm Kira, Lash's friend."

She gasped, "Are you the color girl?"

"Yup." I made a small ball of bright pink light appear in my hand. Gaia giggled and poked a finger through it.

"What's your name?"

"Kira."

"Noooo, your other name, silly."

"Oh, um. Well,"I bent down and lowered my voice to a whisper. "I haven't really decided yet, but I was kind of thinking of the Light Knight."

Someone cleared their throat, and we both looked up. Gaia screamed 'Lash!' and ran at the older boy. He lifted her up and spun her around on his arms. "Come on Parker, let's go outside."

"I told you, my name is Gaia! And why?"

"Trust me kid, you're going to want a fiercer name than Gaia." Lash said as he put her back on the ground. "And Mom's about to call Dad."

Gaia/Parker got a funny look on her face, and ran out of the kitchen. Lash walked over to me. "Come on Night Light, let's follow the kid."

"It's not..." He laughed at the face I made. I decided to change the subject. "So where are we going?"

"Down to the fortress, things in the house are about to turn ugly."

"Fortress?"

"Parker's lair."

"She has her own lair?" He just looked at me like I was an idiot and led me outside. The back yard was huge, and looked a lot more lived in than the rest of the house. There was a swing set, and a lot of patches of the lawn were worn away from what looked like years of play. Parker was standing in the middle of the yard, clearly waiting for our arrival. Lash stopped us about five feet from the small girl. I looked at him, but he just shook his head and point at Parker. The girl raised her hands to the sky, stomped her foot and fell through the ground. Lash laughed at me again.

"Don't worry, she a terrakinetic. A flashy one at that."

"Oh. There's a girl in my grade who's a terra."

"Not like Parker." Lash mused and walked us up to the hole in the ground. I looked down into the darkness; the whole looked endless.

"It's not far down, just jump." Lash said as he lept into the hole.

"That's easy for you to do!" I called into the hole. A moment later his arms shot out of the crater, wrapped around my waist, and pulled me down. I screamed a bit until he set me down in a large room, dimly lit by four flashlights in the ceiling. I added a good deal of light to the flashlights, and gasped at what I saw.

Parker's lair was amazing. The main room was about the size of two of my old apartments. There was a large armoire, table, and chairs all made out of stone. There were rugs, posters on the walls, and an actual couch. Parker giggled at my astonishment. She ran over to me and tugged at my arm. "Do you want to see my room?"

"Your room?" She nodded, clapped her hands together, and opened them slowly. A doorway appeared next to the armoire. "Mine's through there, Lash's is on the other side."

"How big is this place?"

"Just the three room, then the slides, and about three more floors below that."

"Three more?" My jaw practically hit the floor. Parker grabbed my hand and dragged me into her room. She had her own dresser and bed, and even a ceiling fan. All rock.

"Why the fan?"

"It can get stuffy in here." She started twirling her finger, and the fan began spinning. I managed to get out a 'wow' before she dragged me out of the room and back into the main room. Lash had opened the armoire, revealing hundreds of board games. Parker ran over to the games, and the ground beneath her feet shot up until she could reach the upper most games.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to her." Lash told me. I hoped he was right. She was a sweet kid, but she had some scary powers. Parker came down after choosing a game, Sorry!, and began setting up the board in the middle of the floor. We got about half way through the game, with me in last place, when I started to get cold. I stood up, trying to remember where I left my sweatshirt.

"Hey Lash, can I go get my sweatshirt out of your car?"

"No need." He said as he snaked out his arm over to the armoire, opened the bottom drawer, and took out a big glowing crystal. He set it down on top of the table, and within moments the room warmed up.

"What is that thing?"

"It's a heat rock. Speed's mom made them for us a couple years back. They keep the air around them 70 degrees."

"That's pretty cool. Does Speed take after his dad then, power wise?"

"Nope, he's a freak of nature. Both his parents have some type of fire power."

"Will you two shut up and play?" Parker asked, giving us each the stink eye. We laughed and got back to the game. I moved another little pawn into my home base. "Go kid. Parker?" She had changed her position, and now sat with her feet and palms pressed firmly to the ground, her eyes squeezed closed in concentration. I looked over to Lash, but he just shushed me. Parker's eyes flew open as a wave of rock rose from the ground beneath her feet and carried her into her bedroom.

"Parker, what's going on?" Lash banged on the wall where she had disappeared.

"Mom's coming! She's pissed!"

"Language kid!" Lash called back. "Sorry, let me go talk to her." He stomped his right foot twice, and the ground beneath him flew up into the air until he disappeared through the ceiling.

I was left standing in the middle of the empty room, hopelessly confused. After a minute or two of waiting I tip toed over to Parker's wall and knocked softly on it. The wall split open and I walked through. Parker was lying on the bed, making stalactites appear and disappear into her ceiling. "Hey Gaia." She smiled at the name. "What's going on?"

"Dad made Mommy mad."

"What did he do?"

"I dunno."

"Then how do you know she's mad?"

"She's stomping her feet. She only stomps when she's mad." Parker stopped messing with the ceiling and sat up. "When people walk or move, they send...umm... vibrations, that's it, into the Earth. I can feel those vibrations if I try, and sometimes I can tell who it is. Lash and Mom are easy, they always walk too long." I _'Ooohed'_and she jumped off the bed. "I like the way you walk. Most people stomp and walk all heavy. You're all light."

"Um, thanks?" She grabbed my hand and dragged me back to the main room. She waved her other hand and Lash jumped in through the ceiling. "How is everything?"

"Pretty good. Practice arena?"

"Huh?" I questioned right before the ground underneath our feet shook. I grabbed onto Lash's arm with my free hand as we dropped.

"You can open your eyes now." Lash whispered with a laugh. We were in a room as large as the gym, with several stones vaguely shaped like people scattered around the room.

"What are we doing here?"

"I need to let off some steam. Parker, give me two."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Lash growled and cartwheeled his way to the middle of the arena. Parker skipped over to one end and thrust the earth up under her feet, creating a platform where she could overlook the entire room. Suddenly, two of the rock people started gliding toward Lash. He twisted and turned, avoiding each run the rocks made at him. He wrapped his arms around one of the rockmen, and heaved it at the other. The two exploded on contact and showered all of us with dust. Lash wiped the sweat off his forehead and walked over to me. "Come on, it's getting late. I'll take you home." Parker slid down from her platform and ran over to us. "Why does she have to go?"

"Because she can't spend the night."

"Why not? She can sleep in my room."

"Not tonight Parker, maybe some other time." Lash winked at me and I laughed. I gave the kid a hug and she lifted us back up to the surface. She looked up at Lash, who nodded, before walking into the house.

"So am I always going to be lost around you two, or are you going to explain what is going on?"

"I'll explain, come on, let's get to the car, it's cold." He led me around the side of the house and into the garage. We took the cover off the GT, and I spied the keys hanging halfway out of Lash's pocket. I walked over to him, with a shy smile on my face, and laced my arms around his waist. He jumped, surprised by the hug, but soon returned the favor. I pulled the keys from his back pocket very gently. Once they were secure and my finger was on the button, I flashed him my best evil grin, and he let go of me. I went invisible and raced over to the driver's side door.

"Hey!" Lash called out as I hopped into the driver's seat. I locked the doors right before his arm reached the handle. "Come on, you're not driving my car."

"Then you're not getting it back." I turned the key, revved the engine, and hit the garage door opener. I was about to put the car in reverse when Lash stepped over(literally) to the other side of the car.

"Fine!" I opened the doors and let him in. He settled down in the passenger seat and glared at me. "You're a horrible person."

"I know." I answered as I pulled out of the driveway. The car handled like a dream.

"Do you even have a license?"

"Umm...no."

"I hate you."

"Don't worry, I'm an excellent driver. Now explain what happened back there."

"My mom and dad aren't the best of friends. Whenever they try talking they wind up in a screaming match, with the occasional object getting thrown even though they're on the phone. Right after Parker powered up, she made her Lair, and we chill down there whenever they decide to face off. The best thing about it is that neither of them can get into it. Dad's a few thousand miles away and I got my powers from Mom."

"What about the arena thing?"

"I just needed to blow off some steam. Mom doesn't know when to stop yelling once she's started."

"Oh, maybe we should stick her in a room with my Aunt. That'd be pretty fun."

Lash started laughing when a red Jeep cut us off. I blew the horn and Lash started screaming at the guy, even though he couldn't hear. I slid into the right lane and pulled even with his car. "What are you doing?" Lash asked.

"Just you watch." I colored myself clear and rolled down the driver's side window. I blew the horn twice, and the driver of the Jeep looked over at us. He gasped as Lash waved to him from the passenger's seat, and veered into the left lane. Rolled up the window, and we both started laughing uncontrollably.

"The look on that guy's face was priceless." Lash said as he calmed down.

"Agreed."

A few minutes later I pulled up to the Lantern and parked the car. "You're not too shabby." Lash said.

"Thank you. I've had some practice."

Lash cleared his throat. "I had fun tonight."

"Me too."

"Um...would you like to maybe, I dunno, go to Homecoming with me?"

My brain froze. It seemed to take forever to get my lips to form that one silly, stupid little word.

"Ofcourseidlovetogo!"


	9. Homecoming

**A/N: I'M SO SORRY! Getting my teeth yanked out of my head messed me up more then I thought it would. And it sucks because I finished the first half of this like two weeks ago. / I'm really sorry for the wait you guys, I should be back on the regular once a week schedule now.**

I own nothing but the characters you don't recognize from the movie

* * *

"Is he even allowed to go to homecoming after last year?" Magenta asked as we sat down at our table.

"I'm guessing so? I mean, why would he ask if he couldn't go?"

"I dunno. It just seems weird. I'd think Powers would keep him away."

"Well, I guess Powers thinks that he won't do anything. And he won't. He know's that I'd kill him, then let all of you kill him once I was done." I explained for what seemed like the hundredth time. We had kept it quiet for a few weeks, but somehow word had spread through the tiny school that Lash was attending homecoming, and even kids I didn't know were constantly asking me about it. It got to the point where I had to go invisible whenever I entered the hallways between classes to avoid the whispers and questions.

"I think now we're going to have to make Warren go so he can babysit you two." Zach said.

"I don't think Warren is going to go, no matter what you tell him." I countered, knowing that he would probably not want to go to homecoming with another girl when he was still seeing Miss. Shirley Temple.

"Why don't you let Warren decide if Warren is going to go or not?" Warren asked, and the rest of us fell silent. "So Warren, are you going to go? No Warren, don't think I am. There, happy?"

"Kind of weirded out, actually." Will told him.

"So what are you going to do instead?"

"Work."

"Shuo huang zhe, nei bi hai tung maai ne gi neoi pang jau." _Liar, you'll be with your girlfriend. _I mumbled, jokingly of course. Aunt Wu had given us the night off for the dance, as long as we brought our friends in beforehand to eat. Warren didn't acknowledge me. The others waited for a translation, but they never got one.

"Can you make up your mind if you hate me or not? This is getting old."

"I don't hate you."

"Then what is your deal?"

"6000 hours."

"What?"

"Nothing." I said before turning to Layla, who was trying really hard not to stare at us. I sent her some girl-in-need vibes. "What's this year's theme?"

She looked confused for a second, then thought about it until she had everyone at the table anxiously waiting for her answer. I love that girl.

"Masquerade."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Did you ever pick up that dress?" Anna asked from down the table.

"Nope, I still have to talk to my parents about the money."

"Don't you make enough at the Lantern?"

"Nope. That place runs on slave labor. Kidding, just kidding." I added before Layla could open her mouth about the horrors of slave labor.

"I'm going to pick out mine on Saturday, wanna come with?" Anna asked.

"Sure, who's the lucky guy?" Her ears pinked. Across the table from her, Ethan melted.

"Looks like Popsicle got himself a date this year." Warren laughed.

* * *

Things with Lash had progressed nicely since he asked me to homecoming.

That's somewhat along the line of what I had planned to tell Mellie, but when she asked, the words that came out of my mouth sounded something like this:

"It's freaking amazing. Like, he's still an ass, but he's such an adorable one." I was supposed to call my parents as soon as I got home and get the money for the dress, but I needed some moral support first. Mellie was better then a freakin holy pushup bra.

"How about some more important information, like does he actually have an adorable ass?"

"I think so? Jeez, we're not even dating and you think I've already seen him naked."

"Have you?"

"No!"

"Poor kid. What about in a bathing suit? Boxers? Spandex?"

"It's November. And we don't get spandex until after we graduate."

"That's no fun."

"Tell me about it. Now, what do I do about my parents?"

"Go for the mom. Never mention a boy to your dad. He's cool, but not that cool. And he talks to much."

"Okay, what else?"

"How should I know, they're your parents. Tell them Aunt She-Devil gave you the night off, and knowing how freaky that is, they'll probably give you the money on good faith. And call me exactly when they do, okay? And call now!"

"Okay. Later Mels." I hung up and flopped down on my bed. Back home, I had never done the girl thing: the dances, dates, and the inevitable hysterical crying in the bathroom (okay, the crying thing I did once, but junior high sucked), so I wasn't quite sure how to approach my parents with this one. I took a few deep breaths, and dialed the apartment.

"Mom, mom, mom, please mo–oh, hi Dad!"

"Hey kiddo, what's up?"

"Nothing, is Mom around?"

"Nope, she's still on shift. So how are things going?"

"Pretty good. School is fun, and community service isn't that bad."

"How's Boomer treating you?"

"Not bad. I only have him for gym, and haven't had to save the citizen in a while."

"Why not? I loved that game."

"He's been doing sidekicks vs heroes lately, and he's making kids go who haven't played yet this year"

"Ooh. How's your Aunt?"

"As crazy as ever."

"Now you be nice to her..."

"I am, I am." I butted in before my Dad could start his rant. "But Daddy, I have a favor to ask."

"Okay, shoot."

"Well, there's this dance coming up, and it's kind of formal, so I was wondering if I could possibly borrow some money for a dress?"

"And how much would this very modest, full length, long sleeved dress cost?"

"Umm, around two hundred dollars?"

I held the phone away from ear as he started screaming.

"Dad, Dad. DAD. Hold it! Just think of all the money that you guys aren't spending to feed me? And all the money you're saving by not having to get a limo for prom, since no one can take a limo to Sky High. And my friend Anna is a great seamstress, so she can alter the dress for prom next year, and I won't have to buy another one! Please? I swear the dress is beyond perfect."

"I'll have to talk with your mother about this."

"I know Daddy. But please, call me after you two talk. I promise I will take a million pictures and send them all to you!"

"I'll call you back around six." He hung up. I groaned and flopped back down on my bed. I dialed Anna's number, and waited for her phone to go voicemail.

"Hey, Anna, you're a seamstress, okay? Thanks."

I spent the next three hours agonizing over my parent's decision. I tried to do my Codes homework, but learning Morse Code wasn't on my top priority at the moment.

"Morse Code is outdated and pointless." I said to no one in particular. "But it makes my handwriting look so much neater."

I sighed and rolled off of my bed. I fixed the crooked blinds on the window that I had been staring at for the last half hour, and was about to recolor the walls when my phone rang.

"Dad?"

"Nope, I'm the seamstress. What's up?" Anna asked.

"I'm so nervous! My parents are going to call soon to let me know if they'll buy the dress."

"Hopefully they will, that dress was so cute."

"I know."

"Hey did you finish the Codes homework?"

"Nope. Hey, I got another call. I'll talk to you later, okay?" I hung up before she could reply. "Dad?"

"Hey kiddo. So, I was talking to your mother..."

"And?"

* * *

My parents were in Aunt Wu's living room talking to Lash, and I had no idea how I was still breathing.

"Relax." Said Anna. "If you keep pacing like that you'll make a groove in the floor."

"That's easy for you to say. Your parents already know Ethan. You have nothing to worry about."

"I'm sure Lash'll do fine."

"He's not a parent's dream kid."

"Well, neither are you." Anna squealed when I threw a pillow at her face. She threw it back, but I caught it before it could hit my head and mess up my hair. "Hey, can you finish my

'makeup' so we can go out?"

"Fine," I mumbled and tossed Anna a mirror. She sat down on my bed, and I pulled a chair up in front of her. "What do you want?"

"Light pink lips, natural cheeks, and shadowy blue eyes." She commanded. I started with the lips, getting them to a nice bubblegum-type shade until she told me to stop. Anna was kind of pale, since she's a firm believer that tanning is for idiots, so I only added some slight color to accentuate her high cheekbones. When I got to her eyes, I added a little smokiness with a blue tint, but not too much. I learned to not go super-dramatic with the eyes very early; you just got too clowny.

"Perfect!" Anna cried as she surveyed my work. She stood up and walked in front of the mirror. I had to admit that she'd make Ethan melt. We settled on a cute little babydoll for her, sapphire colored with a plunging neckline that only just passed her parent's inspection.

"Should I leave my colors in, or go natural?" I asked her, pointing to my hair.

"I like your rainbow of hues. It's you." She said. I nodded and brushed through my hair one last time.

"Okay, I need to go out now or I'm going to chicken out."

"Sure." Anna agreed. "Do you want to sneak out and scare them, or just walk out."

"Can we be as normal as possible until we go off to the flying school?"

Anna laughed and grabbed my arm. She opened my door and dragged me out into the hallway. We approached the living room quietly, our feet barely making any noise against the carpeted floor. I stopped her when we reached the end of the hall so I could catch my breath. After a second I gave her a smile, and we walked out into the room.

No one noticed at first. My parents were grilling Lash about something, and Ethan was talking to his parents and Anna's parents. While Ethan looked like he was enjoying himself, Lash looked like he wanted to slink away as fast as he could. But I don't think he'll mind so much when he learns that his pain was the price for my dress. Lash started to explain something to my dad when his eyes wandered over to the hallway and saw us. His words trailed off as his jaw dropped. My face heated up as my parents turned to look at us. My mom immediately started with the camera and my dad looked like he wanted to find me a sweater.

Ethan, as I predicted, melted right away, and the other parents also started with the cameras. Anna and I posed for a few pictures, then went over to our dates. I took small, hesitant steps over to Lash, who had an adorable, dumbstruck smile on his face, and my parents. I gave each of my parents a hug.

"That isn't a very modest, full length, long sleeved dress Kira." My Dad admonished after I gave him his hug.

"I know, but isn't it amazing?"

"Yes." Lash said quietly behind me. I turned around and smiled at him. He looked so cute in his tux, and white and black striped tie.

"How about some pictures?" My Mom asked, "Jake? Kira?"

"Jake?" I practically gasped. "You told my parents your real name, but not me? What the crap?"

"Kira! Watch your mouth."

"Mom, you don't get it!"

"I don't care, just get ready for your picture!"

I grumbled and stood next to Lash, a.k.a. Jake. He put his arm around my waist and we gave a few smiles for the camera. I had to admit it felt pretty good. After a few shots, Anna and Ethan joined us, and we gave our parents a couple of group pictures. The torture lasted for about ten minutes before they were able to put the cameras away. We said our goodbyes and hurried outside. We walked the couple blocks to the bus stop. The rest of the gang was getting picked up at Will's stop, so it was just us four waiting.

"So you actually have a name other than Lash?" Ethan asked. Anna elbowed him.

"Apparently he does, which would have been nice to know a few months ago."

"Kira, I haven't gone by my first name since I was like, 5."

"Then why did you tell my parents?"

"I couldn't tell them my name was Lash. That'd be weird."

"You're weird."

"I know." He said as the bus pulled up. We got on and took a couple seats in the back with the rest of the gang, minus Warren. The ride up was pretty enjoyable. The gang actually let Lash in a bit, which was pretty surprising. They had promised to be good, but they were actually talking to him, and he was talking back. It was pretty cool.

When we walked into the gym, I was astounded. The place was vibrant and lively, nothing like the gym I was used too. The room was filled with red and gold balloons, and streamers galore. The half of the gym that wasn't filled with dancers was filled with tables, and we sent the boys over to stake claim to one.

"You guys all look so cute!" Layla gushed.

"So do you." I replied. "Do they feed us here?"

"Way to have a one track mind Kira." Magenta said. "And no, we eat cheese or starve."

"Cheese?"

Layla scampered over to a buffet table, a returned a minute later with something on a stick. "Cheesecube?"

I politely declined and we walked over to join the guys. We each sat next to our prospective dates, and I had to admit it was weird seeing everyone paired off, with Warren no where to be found. I knew he was with the regular girl, but it would have been cool to have both of them here, then just wipe her memory of us later.

"What are you thinking about?" I jumped when I heard Lash's voice in my ear.

"Nothing." He grabbed my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. I smiled at him, and he tugged me onto the dance floor. For the first ten minutes we were given a wide berth by the other students. They were still wary of Lash.

"Do you want to go invisible?"

"If I can't dance with you in the middle of a dance, then when can I?" I asked him. He shrugged and put his arms around my waist as a slow song started. I took a step closer to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. I had heard about the butterflies and the tingling from Mellie, but I thought she had been exaggerating.

If anything, she grossly underplayed the butterflies.

We danced for I don't even know how long. The songs changed, tempos picked up and dropped, but we didn't notice a thing. We just danced, perfectly content in each other's arms.

After a while I noticed some of the others had joined us. Layla and Will were dancing off on their own, and the other four were dancing in large group. Even Magenta seemed to be enjoying herself. I tugged on Lash's arm and we joined the weirdly dancing gang.

Suddenly, Lash pulled me into him. His fingers brushed against my chin. I shivered

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"If I can't kiss my girl in the middle of a dance, when can I?"

It. Was. Perfect.


	10. It's ok to use your ability

**A/N: Because you guys waited so patiently for the last one, here is this one two days early!! **

**Disney owns Sky High and all characters you recognize. I own all the others. I make no profit from this story.  
**

* * *

I spent the entire next morning reliving the dance with Mellie on the phone: the music, the people, the walk under the stars, and the kisses.

Especially the kisses.

She had called me around 10, ripping me out of a very nice dream, and demanded to know every last little detail. I spent a few hours explaining everything from the bus ride, to the color of the tablecloths.

"So tell me again, how many times?"

"Three."

Mellie squealed. "That's so awesome. First dates usually don't get that much action and still manage not to be a slut about it."

"Thanks Mel."

"What? You guys only kissed. You restrained yourself well, little grasshopper. I am proud."

I laughed. "You should be proud, restraining yourself is hard."

"You just gotta learn the tricks. It will get easier as you get used to this whole relationship thing. You always have to have something extremely grossed stashed in the back of your mind incase things start heating up a bit more then you want them too. You need something that is an instant buzzkill."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just say something gross to turn _him _off?"

"Kira, he's a guy. Your gross and his gross are no where near the same level."

"That's very true."

"So what about your friends? How did they take to Lash?"

"Pretty good. Surprisingly good, actually."

"That's cool. You know I still need to meet these people and give you my approval, right?"

"I know Mel. You should come out for Christmas break."

"I'll have to talk it over with the units." She said. "Hey, don't you have work at noon?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's ten of."

"Crap. Can I talk to you later?"

"Yeah, go put some clothes on."

"Thanks." I hung up and ran into the bathroom. I slipped out of my pajamas and into my little green dress and apron. I quickly did the usual hygiene routine and pulled back my hair.

I stashed my phone in my apron and headed out the side stairs.

"Shit." I muttered when I accidently kicked the invisible food dish I left out for the cat. I had managed to see it a couple of times in the past few weeks. It was a cute, scraggly little tabby, not very old, and it seemed friendly enough. I knew my Aunt would never let us take it in, and the local shelter was full to the brim with cats, according to the frazzled lady who answered the phone.I slid the dish back into place, noting that the cat had eaten all the food, and sped down the stairs. Warren didn't look at me as I walked through the door.

"You're late. Table 3."

I sighed and walked over to my assigned table.

Shit on a stick.

"Um, hi Officer Michaels."

"Hey kid, how're you doing?"

"Pretty good. Can I get you anything?" I jotted down his order and practically ran for the kitchen. I gave the slip to one of the cooks and hid in the closet. My lungs ached as I started gulping in larger amounts of air, trying to calm myself down. Officer Michaels was in the Lantern, as was Warren. Michaels knew everything, and probably knew Warren too, who knows nothing.

I created the deadliest, most destructive looking light ball I had ever made and smashed it into the wall. It made me feel slightly better.

After walking out of the closet I grabbed the Officer's drink. I passed Warren on the way out of the kitchen as he headed back into it, and I practically squealed at the good luck.

"You know that's the kid you stole the car from, right?"

"Yes I do, think you could not tell him that though?" I asked as I put his drink down on the table.

"You haven't told him?"

"Nope. It's complicated."

"Whatever."

"Do you think, if I give you your lo mein for free, you'd possibly pretend you don't know me?"

"One of the reasons I came is that I need to do my check ups. I didn't just drive all the out here for the food."

"I know, but I have to work, and my aunt won't let me off. Can we talk after my shift, around five?" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes.

"Sure kid, as long as the food is free."

"Thanks so much." I gushed, before splitting to make my rounds. We weren't too busy so the escape should be easy. Heck, my Aunt might even allow it.

"Food's up." One of the cooks called as I entered the kitchen.

"Doh je." _Thank you._ I grabbed the plate for Michaels and pushed open the door to the restaurant, where Michaels and Warren were having a nice little conversation together. I took a few deep breaths to stop myself from hyperventilating, and started the long walk over to the table. I slowed down as I neared the table so I could hear some snickets of the conversation, but Michaels looked up too soon, alerting Warren to my presence. His face turned a bit red when he saw me, and he quickly left to go help another table. I sat the food down in front of Michaels and followed Warren.

"So who's that?"

"No one." He said.

"How do you have an intense conversation with no one?"

"It's easier then having a conversation with you."

"Touche." I swallowed, then quietly laughed off the comment. "That hurts man."

"It was supposed to, now can I do my job?"

I gave him a nod and walked away, and spent the next twenty minutes trying not to cry. People did not like tears in their food.

"Miss, check please?" Officer Michaels called. I walked over to him and put the check down on the table and cleared his empty plate. He opened the little holder, pretended to put money in, and gave it back to me. When I got to the kitchen I dumped the plate, then walked over to the register. I took twenty bucks from my pocket and put it in the register, then took my measly seven dollars of change.

* * *

I spent the next four and a half hours doing rounds and avoiding Warren. We were packed all day, and I barely had a minute to myself just to sit down and take a breath. Worse yet, Aunt Wu had decided to keep me on for another hour. As five o'clock neared, I snuck back into the kitchen. While the cooks were preoccupied, I made my way over to the backdoor.

"Nűi jái, nei jo gan mat ye a?" _Girl, what are you doing_

"Zhi xie gan chut goh boon can yu wu." _Just taking out the trash._ I said quickly, and grabbed the bag out of the can.

"Hui Faai!" _Go quick._ My Aunt said as I slunked out the door. I dumped the bag in the alley as soon as the door was shut, and went invisible. The sun had set quickly, and it was starting to get dark. I jogged out to the front of the restaurant, and waited for Officer Michaels to come out. When he finally did, I made my way toward him, ducking around the old man walking down the sidewalk.

"Hello."

Michaels jumped. "Don't worry, it's me. Just walk into the alley, and act natural."

He complied. "Can you make yourself visible?" He asked when we reached the alley.

"Nope." I said as I made him vanish too.

"Hey! This is not cool."

"You'll get used to it." I told him. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"How's school?"

"Good. I'm keeping out of trouble, getting good grades, and lying to my friends on a daily basis."

"Excellent. What about community service?"

"It's not that bad. Would be better if they paid me."

"That would completely defeat the purpose of community service."

"I know that."

"Okay then. So since everything here is fine, I'll give you the updates from back home. Most of the gang has been tried and convicted by now, a few are still awaiting sentencing, but most will be put away for a long time. You're parents and friend will be able to return to the city in about a month, if they wish too. You, of course, won't be able to return until your years here are up. So you'll be here throughout summer."

"All of summer?"

"Yes." I took a few deep breaths to calm myself while he continued to talk. "If you want to take some years off your community service time, you'll have to pull a lot more hours during the summer, when you don't have to worry about school. If you don't, and only work the hours you're working now, you'll be picking up garbage until you're forty."

"I can see how that would suck." I mumbled.

"Well, as long as you continue on the path you're on now, I'm sure you'll be fine here." Officer Michaels said.

The side door slammed opened and I jumped. Warren walked into the alley. "Did you fall in? Kira?"

I turned myself visible. "Nope."

"What're you doing?"

"Just um, enjoying the, uh stars." I wish I was a good liar, but at least it was getting dark out.

"Well, you should be working." He started to turn and go back into the kitchen when someone kicked me. I squealed, and Warren spun around. "What was that?"

"Nothing, I, uh, stepped on something."

"Who's out here with you? It is Lash? I swear to God if he's here again I'll kick his ass."

"Warren stop, Lash isn't here."

"Who's Lash?"

"Her criminal boyfriend. Wait...who said that?" Warren looked around, and I kicked the wall.

"I hate you." I told Officer Michaels as I turned him visible again.

"What's _he _doing here? What's going on."

"Nothing, Warren." Michaels and I said at the same time.

"I'm serious, tell me what the hell is going on. I'm sick of your crap Kira, and I'm not going to put up with it anymore. Are you some type of narc or something? What are you doing with him?"

"Warren, I need to tell you something."

"No shit, sherlock."

"Watch your mouth."

"Shut up!" Warren and I said to Officer Michaels.

"Follow me, we're going for a walk. Michaels, stay here." I stomped to the end of the alley, and turned when I reached the street. "Well, are you coming?" Warren shook his head and caught up with me. We walked in silence until we reached a small park down the street from the Lantern. "I know you're probably really confused."

"Just a bit." He rolled his eyes.

"Well, you know I used to live in New York right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so I just need to let you know that I didn't find out until the guys told me a few weeks ago. I couldn't figure out how to tell you, I wanted too so bad, but I just kept chickening out."

"Tell me what?"

"That I am the one who stole your car."

Warren didn't say anything. He didn't move. The silence was overwhelming.

"I didn't know it was you! We had never jacked a car with a person in it before, and I was so freaked I went to Officer Michaels and confessed and led the cops to the gang's hideout to get your car back before they could sell it. But it wasn't my choice, I was forced to. The gang had been blackmailing me for years and threatening my family, and I know that's no excuse but you gotta believe that I'm sorry and I never meant to hurt you. Johnny wasn't supposed to go after a live car, but he had a gun, I couldn't stop him. I'm sorry! I didn't know who you were and I didn't know you'd be here when I came to Sky High. It was my punishment. That and community service, which is where I disappear to after school. I wanted to tell you so bad, but I wasn't allowed to tell anyone why I was here, incase one of the gang were to try to find me, cause people talk! Please, don't be mad. Please!" I ranted, and broke down crying. I couldn't help it, I had wanted to tell him for so long, and it definitely wasn't supposed to happen like this. I opened my eyes and looked up at Warren, who still hadn't said a word.

"Warren?"

"It was _you_?" He roared. Warren's arms burst into flames and I screamed. He started launching fireballs at my face. I avoided most, and only got singed on my arm before I heard someone shouting:

"Freeze!"

Warren flinched and spun around. Officer Michaels was aiming his gun at Warren's chest. I stared at them, dumfounded, wondering who would fire first.

"Boy, put out those flames right now and leave that girl alone, or I will not hesitate to shoot you." He commanded. Warren just stood there, breathing heavily, with his arms alight. "Look, you wouldn't have a car if it weren't for that girl. The gang that stole your car would still be out on the streets, and not sitting in prison, if it weren't for that girl. If I were you, I'd not want to kill her."

Warren growled and let go of his fire.

"Look, Warren..." I started.

"So help me God, if you touch me!" He screamed and walked away from me. Sobs escaped my throat and I sat down on the cold ground.

"Cheer up kid, he'll come around." Officer Michaels said awkwardly. I could tell he didn't know how to handle an emotional girl. "Do you want me to walk you home?"

"Just go away."

"You sure?"

"Yes." When my sobs quieted I picked myself up and turned invisible, so there would be no way for him to follow me. I started to make the long walk home, and tried to think about anything but the conversation I just had. Unfortunately, it wasn't working too well.

I got halfway back to the Lantern when I started walking faster. I could swear I heard someone following me, but every time I turned my head to look, no one was there. A few times I would stop and duck in doorways, and just sit there for a few minutes hiding, before I would start up again.

I didn't hear the footsteps until I was a block away from the Paper Lantern. I tried not to think of it at first, I just walked faster. I told myself it was Officer Michaels; he wasn't the kind of guy who would just let a distraught girl walk home by herself.

My phone started vibrating and I nearly screamed. I took a second to calm myself before slipping my phone out of my apron. I stepped into another doorway and powered down to look at it.

"It's only Lash." I whispered in an effort to calm myself. I flipped open the phone.

"Hey." I said as I continued my trek back to the Lantern.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Liar. Tell me."

"I -I told him." I couldn't hold back the little sob that escaped my lips. I was so thankful to turn into the alley a second later.

"Jesus. I'm coming over, okay?"

"Uhuh." I climbed the steps, not even bothering to go into the restaurant. Warren and I had already bailed on our shifts, it didn't matter if I came back now. I could get yelled at later.

I nearly tripped over the cat on my way up. It shrieked and raced down the stairs.

"What was that?" Lash asked.

"Just a stupid cat that's been hanging around for a few weeks." I told him as I reached the door. I took the key I hid in a little potted plant and started to open the door. "Can you call me when yo–"

I heard a deafening noise. Heat and pain enveloped me before I let myself fall into nothingness.


	11. You must know, it's hard to choose

**A/N: Woohoo! Chapter Ten! Things are gonna start heating up soon guys :P. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High, I make no money from this story...**

* * *

I feel light. I want to float, but something is dragging me down. Clinging to me.

I hear noise. Piercing sounds. I want to fly away, to where there is quiet. But I can't.

The noise it too bright. It is so insanely bright. But it is fading...slowly. Too slowly. I know I can make the light dark now. Make it black. But I can't. It won't let me. It's getting brighter. Brighter hurts.

* * *

It took me a minute to realize I was alive. I didn't feel anything. But I could see the lights burning through my eyelids.

It made me giggle.

I heard something near me, my name? I don't know. I tried to open my eyes, but all I saw was white before my eyelids drooped back down. For some reason, it made me giggle more.

There were voices. They didn't say anything I could understand.

"_What did they give her?"_

"_Beats me."_

"_Get a doctor."_

Time flew. I don't know how long. The giggles would come and go, but they never lasted long. I couldn't hold a thought together to laugh at. I spoke, I think. I couldn't feel my face, but I knew words were flowing. Flowing. Haha.

Sleep...was nice.

* * *

I think it was the pain that woke me up. I'm not sure, but I definitely think it was the pain. I could feel myself. I wished I was back to the floating.

I whimpered. Everything hurt.

"Shhh, it's okay. You're okay."

I opened my eyes. The light was blinding. I flinched. Then it was gone. I opened my eyes again, and through the spots I saw a face. It was hard to focus, but I knew who it was. I smiled at him and looked down. His hand was holding bandages. Was I in those bandages?

Why was I in bandages?

I looked up at Lash. "What happened?"

"Nothing. How're you feeling, Nightlight?"

"I hurt. Something must have happened or else I wouldn't hurt."

"They told me not to tell you. They said it would upset you."

"Please."

Lash sighed. "Someone tried to blow you up." My heart stopped. Lash saw the look on my face and hurriedly continued. "It wasn't Warren. The cop hunted him down, and he passed the lie detector test."

I calmed down a bit, until I remembered that someone still had tried to kill me. The tears started flowing freely, but I tried to keep the sobs to a minimum. All the movement hurt my chest. It took me a few minutes to realize Lash was crying too.

"What's wrong?"

He didn't say anything for a moment. He used his free hand to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I heard them blow you up. You were just talking, then there was an explosion, and you screamed. The phone fell to the ground, and it was still on and you weren't screaming anymore. I thought you–." He broke off, but I didn't say anything. I could tell he had more to say. "I'd never driven so fast in my life. I got there just as the fire department did. You were crumpled on top of the dumpster. The explosion actually launched you off the stairs and threw you against the opposite wall. You weren't moving; just laying there. I was afraid to touch you. The firemen just went right to put out the fire, they didn't even see you. It was cop who wound up calling the ambulance. I couldn't even do that. I just saw you and froze." His voice was rushed, as if he would never be able to say the words if he didn't say them now.

"Lash, calm down. Please. I'm alive." I gripped his hand harder, but he was still crying. We were both a bunch of babies.

We were still crying, though a bit more softly, when a doctor came in. Well, flew in. He chuckled when my jaw dropped.

"We're on the super hero floor." He explained.

"The hospital has a super hero floor?"

"Yes, most hospitals do. Supers need special treatments and doctors, since they usually aren't put in here by normal means." The doctor, a slightly older man, said. "Now, let's see how that head of yours is doing." He walked over and took out a little pen light. He shined it in my left eye, the my right eye. Then he took my chin and turned my head from side to side before shining the light again.

"Well, no concussion, which is always good." He said as he took a chart from the end of my bed and started writing.

"What else is wrong with me? I hurt, but I can't tell from what."

"Well, we had some of our best healers in to work with you. We fixed your spine and back, which was our top priority, since I'd assume you like walking. We also fixed your broken leg. It will be sore for a while, but there won't be any permanent damage there. There were some minor burns on your chest and stomach that we took care of, so they won't wined up scarring. You'll only have light scarring on your hands, but your forearms were burnt up pretty badly, so the scarring will be a bit worse there, I'm afraid."

I nodded. I could deal with scarring. I was alive, that was enough.

"Now your face, on the other hand..."

I could feel my stomach drop.

"Well, all I can say is you are very lucky. I don't know if you were looking away or what but your face only had minor burns, most of which we were able to heal. You still have a burn on the right side of your face, right under your eye, but it should heal up pretty fast, and the scar shouldn't be too horrible." He paused as I tried to keep from crying. "A lot of your hair was singed, but you'll still have a decent mop on you. Now, it seems like the pain meds have started to wear off, since you're pretty lucid, but I won't give you another dose for a while because there is a policeman outside waiting to talk to you, and I'm guessing he'd like you coherent. Do you think you're ready to see him?"

I nodded. The doctor put my chart back and left the room. I looked over at Lash. "How bad is it really?" I asked.

"You were lucky. Most of you is bandaged up, but I don't think it's that bad." Lash said. He looked at me right in the eye, and it was hard not to believe him, but the shallow part of me was wailing. Lash stood up and leaned close to me, gently wiping a tear from the left side of my face. "Don't worry. You're beautiful."

Lash's lips touched mine, and suddenly I didn't care about the burns or the scars or anything. His touch was so gentle, like he was afraid that he'd break me, that it made me ache in a totally good way.

"Ahem." We broke apart when Officer Michaels made his presence known. Michaels' face was red, and I gave him a wan smile. "Looks like you're feeling better."

"Yeah."

"That's good. Wouldn't look good for me if the kid I was sent to look after got blown up, huh?" He laughed to himself. "Now, I've called your parents, and they're already on a flight out, and when they get here we're going to have a nice long conversation before we decide on your placement."

"Placement?"

"Someone just tried to kill you. You can't stay here."

"Why can't she?" Lash butted in. "Here she'll be surrounded by superheros. Who better to protect her?"

"It doesn't matter how many people are around to protect her if they know she's here."

"Wait a minute, who is _they_?" I asked. "Do you know?"

"We have a guess."

"Well, spill it." I commanded. Michaels looked back and forth from me to Lash. "Spill."

"We have reason to believe that your attackers were, for a lack of a better word, human." He paused. "They used a pipe bomb. Crudely made, but effective. Supers have technology way more advanced then what was used, and most wouldn't need a bomb."

As he spoke I could feel my stomach turn. I moved hundreds of miles away, my family moved, Mellie moved. They were in jail, and they still found me. "It was them, wasn't it?"

"We believe so."

"It was who?" Lash asked.

"My old best buddies."

"The gang?"

"Yup." I sighed. "I thought they were all in jail?"

"Mostly." Michaels answered.

"Mostly?" Lash stood up, rage seething out his pores. He walked over to Officer Michaels, but never let go of my hand. "You let her run around Maxville like everything was okay, while hostile gang members that want to kill her have been loose? Are you insane?"

"We're doing everything we can, and I'd appreciate if you stop yelling at me!" Officer Michaels shouted. I squeezed on Lash's hand, mentally telling him to shut the hell up. "And, you might want to get that arm checked out kid."

Lash extended his other arm and poked Officer Michaels in the chest. "My arms are just fine." Michaels gulped.

"Lash goes to my school." I told Officer Michaels. "So, how did Warren respond to the questioning?"

"He was not a happy camper, but he eventually complied, which is good, because pointing a gun at that kid makes me nervous. It was bad enough at the park." If I could move an inch without hurting myself, I would have slapped him.

"What happened at the park?" Lash asked. He was met with silence. "Kira, what happened with Warren?"

"Warren got kind of," I paused and tried to think of an easy way to put it, "fired up."

"Did he attack you?"

"No, Lash, you know he wouldn't." I tried to reason with him. The last thing I needed was to have Lash go after Warren. "How would you feel if you were in his position? He was pissed. Warren tends to light up when he's pissed. He can't help it. He didn't actually throw anything."

"You suck at lying."

"He only threw like two, and I'm good at dodging. He didn't even hit me."

"If you two are done, we still have some things to discuss." Officer Michaels interjected, before Lash could start speaking.

"Can I stay?"

"We'll have to talk to your parents."

"Then we're done," I muttered, "I'm tired."

"Are you sure?" Officer Michaels asked.

"It can wait until morning." Lash said as he walked back over to my bedside.

"It practically is morning."

"Then afternoon. Just let her sleep, and get the doctor on the way out, will you?"

"Lash, be nice." I said. "But get the meds."

Officer Michaels huffed and left the room. Lash stretched himself out in the chair next to me. "How is it?" He asked.

"Pain? Not horrible, but it's getting there." I paused when something occurred to me. "Where's my aunt? Did she show up while I was out?"

"Nope. She ran outside when all the fire trucks arrived, saw that I had you all taken care of and would get you safely to the hospital, and went back into the Lantern."

"Go Aunt Wu." I said. The doctor from before flew into the room again and rechecked my stats. He fiddled with a few dials out of my view, and I instantly began to feel light again. I looked over at Lash, who looked like he was ready to burst out laughing.

"Are you going to start talking weird again?"

"Just sleep, stupid...super head."

* * *

It was my parents who woke me up the second time, since it was hard to ignore my screaming mother.

She was standing in the doorway, clutching the frame as if gravity would suck her into the ground if she didn't. Lash looked at my hysterically weeping mother, then back to me. I could tell she made him uncomfortable, but I clutched his hand firmly. He could not escape while I was stuck to the bed.

"Mommmmm, calm down." I whispered. My throat was parched. "I'm fine."

"Fine? Fine?" She wailed. "You were blown up! They broke your spine! I can't even see your skin under all those bandages!"

"That's probably a good thing." I muttered, and she cried harder. She ran over to my bedside and paused for a minute before she hugged me. I would have hugged her back, but that required the use of my arms. And my arms weren't going anywhere. She seemed to calm down a bit after hugging me. Her wailing slowed to quiet sobs, and she managed to drag another chair over to the bed.

"Where's Dad?"

"He's talking to your doctor and Officer Michaels."

"He's still here?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Can you go get me some water, Mom?"

"Sure hunny." She said before hurrying out of the room. The room seemed much larger without her in it. The beige walls were bare, and there were about six chairs scattered around the room, half for my side, and half for the other side with the empty bed. I waited ten seconds, until I was sure she was gone, before I looked over at Lash.

"So what time is it?"

"About one in the afternoon."

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Nope. Somebody's got to keep you company." He said. "So what was with getting rid of your mom?"

"She gets hysterical, and my dad is always good at calming her down, so I'm hoping she'll come back in with him and Michaels so we can figure out what is going on."

He 'oohed.' "You wanna stay, right?"

"Ummm."

"You can't be serious."

"They almost blew me up! How can I not feel a bit worried about staying with Aunt Wu?"

"Stay with me. Then I'll be your bodyguard." He puffed out his chest, and I giggled.

"Thanks, but I don't think my parents would enjoy that."

"Then you can live with Parker." He gave me a little peck on my right cheek just seconds before my parents walked back into the room. They were followed by the same doctor I had last night, and the good cop.

My dad came right over and gave me a hug, and the rest of the adults pulled up a couple of chairs and sat around my bed. I felt like I was on trial. My mom handed me the glass of water, and I eagerly took a few gulps. I gave the empty glass back to my mom, then lifted the bed up so I could look at everyone without craning my neck.

"So when can I leave?" Lash tugged at my hand. "The hospital, I mean."

"If physical therapy goes well, you'll be out in about a week or two." The doctor said. "We don't have much to do, just make sure your legs are working fine, and get you used to lifting things and writing. We'll also assess your power levels while you're here, and make sure your abilities are fine."

"Why wouldn't they be?"

"Spinal injuries are tricky things with super heros, especially ones with conscious powers. Sometimes things get, well, lost in translation, I guess you'd say, when you fix such a delicate injury."

I concentrated on the doctor's pearly white lab coat, and willed it red.

...Pink was close enough.

Lash, who was the first to notice, laughed. "I think her powers are fine, Doctor."

He looked down at his coat. "Very well then. After a week here you'll go through another healing session, just a superficial one though so you'll be able to move easier. After physical therapy we'll send you home, and possibly back to school if we feel you're ready. You'll still be on daily medications to fight off infections, and you'll probably still have quiet a few bandages on you, but other than that you should be fine. Thank you." During his speech his lab coat had gone back to its original color, but not with my help. I took a few deep breaths to stop myself from crying.

"And once all that is done, you can come home with us." My dad said.

"With you?"

"Well, not to New York, of course. But back to Maine. It's lovely up there, you'd like it. And the public school near our house is great." I tried to digest what he was saying, but I couldn't.

"You can't do that!" Lash said. "You'd just be taking her away from people who can protect her!"

"We're her parents Jake, who can protect her better?"

"I don't know, maybe a kid with super strength and flight, another who can control the ground you walk on and one who can control the plants around your feet, and one that can stretch untold amounts."

"Don't forget the ones who can shapeshift, glow, look into other people's souls, and melt. And those are just my friends." I added.

"Kira, we really want you with us."

"I know Mom, and trust me, I love you guys, but I think I'll be much safer if I'm constantly surrounded by super heroes." I told her. "What if you guys come to Maxville?"

"We both have good jobs back home, and good covers. We can't just leave."

"I'm afraid I agree with your parents on this one too, Kira." Officer Michaels butted in. I glared at him.

"You can't just take me away from here! What about my punishment? The law says I have to go to Sky High. I have to do my community service. I can't just leave!"

"Extenuating circumstances." Michaels said.

"You're not helping!" I groaned.

"Wait a minute," My dad interrupted. "Doesn't Medulla still teach there?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Couldn't he make some sort of thing that could tell us if you're in danger?"

I love my dad.

"Probably. If he does, can I stay?"

My parents looked at each other, communicating silently in a way parents only can, and nodded. "If he can make something that works, then we'll think about it."

"Thank you." Lash and I said at the same time. My mother looked at us and frowned, then dug around in her bag for something. She pulled out a stack of papers.

"I know I probably shouldn't give this to you now, but at least it will be here for when you're ready to do it."

"What is it?" I asked as she handed the stack to me.

"Homework."


	12. Time Will Tell

**A/N: I hate not having internet :(**

**Disclaimer: I don't own sky high, nor do I make any money from this story.**

* * *

The hardest part of my day used to be sitting still at my desk doing schoolwork.

And now it is trying not to cry while sitting at my desk doing schoolwork.

After the first couple days of physical therapy, we narrowed down my weak points. My walking was fine: I only had a slight limp, but it didn't cause any problems. My powers were still messed up, I didn't tell them how bad it actually was. The main thing that kept causing problems were my arms. Resting my forearms on anything, or trying to lift something heavier then a pencil or stack of papers, caused my arms to burn like crazy.

"You've only been at it for twenty minutes, Kira. Don't stop now." My therapist, Linda, said.

"Want me to burn your arms so you can do it?" I replied as I finished writing a sentence. On top of using the thick therapy pen, I had to hold my arm up off the desk to stop the pain from the burns. Holding my arm up for that long, however, caused my muscles to ache horribly.

"Just ten more minutes. Then we'll go work on lifting things with your left arm."

"That will be fun." My sarcasm was lost on her as I finished a sheet, causing her to cheer. She handed me a new sheet of paper. "What should I write this time?"

"List everything that makes you happy."

"Are you trying to depress me?"

"List."

I sighed and got to work, making sure to put each thing on its own line. My parents, friends, and Lash took up the first three. After that I wrote some minuscule, stupid things like books, music and male models. I couldn't think of any solid thing that I could put on the list.

"That's all I got."

"You only filled half the page. There has to be more then that." Linda said. "What about school?"

"Won't be fun when I get back."

"Why not?"

I didn't respond.

"Well, what about your health? I know it sounds weird considering the shape your in, but you could have been killed! And here you are, a walking, talking, regular teenager!"

"With multiple burns all over her body and muscle damage."

"So? It's all fixable. You'll be better in no time. Write it."

I complied.

"Now, you have to be out of here by three, right? Okay then, let's forget this for now, and go work on your other arm before you have to pack things up." I left my list at the table and followed her into the gym area. Linda took a tiny two pound hand weight and held it out in front of her. "Grab it."

I reached out for it, but she pulled back. "Hey!"

"Left hand! Careful now." I reached out for it with my left hand, and she let it drop into my palm. I let my arm fall to my side. "Okay, raise it until it is level with your shoulders, then hold it." My forearm burned as I did, but I managed. After about a minute I was gasping for breath.

"That's fine. Lower it and take a breather." I dropped the weight then sat down on a medicine ball. "Can you play the guitar?"

"No, why?"

"It's great for forearm strength. It might do you some good." Linda told me. "Think about it. Now pick that weight back up and give me five more."

* * *

My parents and I were scheduled to meet Mr. Medulla at his office at Sky High to take a look at his invention. We took a school bus up, since we didn't have a flying car, and the safety straps killed my rib cage. The bus driver let us off into an empty campus. I expected it, since it was a Saturday, but it was weird to see such a huge place so entirely void of life.

"I'll lead the way."

"Dad."

"Trust me kid. I know where I'm going." He linked arms with Mom and walked her up into the building. I followed the two down a couple wrong turns, and listened to what seemed like hundreds of my dad's old memories, before we finally reached Medulla's office. My dad knocked on the door, and Medulla rushed us in.

"Sit, sit! Kira, how are you doing? Are you alive under all those bandages?" After physical therapy I had re-wrapped all my visible burns, so my arms and hands were covered mummy style, and the right side of my face had a giant bandage taped over it. I nodded at him, and he continued. "That's good. I hope you approve of this little device, because I'm afraid Larry won't pass the class if you're out much longer."

Mr. Medulla took a silver watch out of his pocket and handed it to me. It looked normal enough, besides the fact that the actual 'watch' part of the device was larger than my wrist. It looked big enough to be one of those monitors that they strap around people's ankles when they're on house arrest.

"Now I know it's chunky, but with your powers it shouldn't matter. It has a pulse rate monitor in the buckle, and a G.P.S. system so your parents will always know your location. It is able to detect different poisons in the air around you, as well as any abnormalities in your skin. It also has a shock device built into it in case you do flat line to help revive you. If your heart beats too fast or too slow, your parents will also be alerted."

"What if I'm working out? Will my parents think I'm being attacked?"

"There is a way for you to shut it off. See that little red button there? Yes that one. All you have to do is press it, and then the Alert Mode will be turned off. Then you can work out, or take it off to shower, and your parents won't think you died. Then, as soon as you're finished, you press that button again and Alert Mode will be back on. Now, all the buttons are attuned to your fingerprints, so only you can work it. But be warned, even though Alert Mode is off, you'll still be monitored. Your location, heart rate...everything."

"So I won't have a moment to myself every again."

"It's for your own protection."

"But this will do nothing to protect me! It'll just tell you the exact moment I die!"

"Well, there is something..."

"What?"

"You know your friend Mr. Stronghold? Well, I took some of his blood and synthesized it down to its basic properties, and through a few experiments I was able to derive a formula that will give you momentary invincibility. If you feel threatened, you can double hit the red button. Well, go on." I hit the red button twice and the side panel opened up. Inside was a little red light next to a yellow button. "Then, you press that yellow button, and you'll be injected with the formula."

"Is that safe?" Dad asked.

"Yes, I believe it is. It won't last long, but it should last just long enough for her to escape from whatever situation she may be in."

"So if I feel threatened, you want me to inject myself with Will's blood."

"Basically."

"Tăoyàn!" _Disgusting!_

"Kira!" Mom admonished. "Now, how do we keep track of her?"

"With this." Medulla reached into his desk and pulled out another silver box. He hit a button on the front and the box opened itself up. Inside were three little monitors, each clearly labeled with 'Pulse', 'Location', and 'Toxin Report'. In the middle of the three monitors were two little lights, one green and one yellow. The green light was labeled 'Alert Off' and the yellow 'Invincibility Activated.' "You'll see that it is all pretty straight forward. The monitors are all touch screen, so if you wanted to see any of the information on the screens in writing form, just touch them, and, for instance, the GPS map gets turned into the address she's at. The same goes for the tox screen. The pulse monitor won't change unless her pulse changes to dangerous levels."

"Okay, but if something goes wrong, then what? What can we do? Do we just sit there and watch our daughter's heart stop?" My mom asked.

"If she's in danger, the local police, as well as the League of Heros, will be immediately alerted. Also Kira, if you feel you are in danger, just press that white button next to the red one, which manually alerts the police and the League."

"There is only one problem with your whole watch idea."

"What is it?" Mr. Medulla asked.

"How am I supposed to wear it?" I held up my bandaged wrists.

"Oh, well, we'll wait until you're ready to come back to school. By then your wrists should be better, right?"

"Probably."

"Good then. So are you willing to let Kira stay?" He asked my parents. They looked at each other, then nodded.

"Okay, but I'll only wear that thing on one condition."

"What is it?" My mom asked.

"You will not be spying on me every second of the day. Don't check my every move. Look at it if it says there is something wrong, and only then, okay?"

"Sure hunny. We'll try."

* * *

I was scheduled to go back to school the day I could wear that thing on my wrist without crying. I practiced making the watch invisible so I wouldn't have to deal with the any more questions than I'd already get, and I could make it stay clear for about half an hour at a time. Just a half hour. Before the accident, I could have made it invisible for days without trying.

After the accident, I had been practicing with my powers for hours on end when I was alone. My invisibility powers and basic color powers were pretty much back to where they were pre-explosion, except for how long they lasted. I could still make the light balls, though they tended to have a mind of their own, but the holograms and tattoos were almost completely gone. I could start to mold a light ball into another item, but could never complete the transformation.

It was really starting to piss me off.

I still refused to tell anyone about my powers; not my parents, nor Lash, or even Mellie or Anna. The rest of the gang wasn't allowed to visit, the doctors said the less people who could bring germs into my hospital room the better off I was, so I hadn't actually talked to them in a couple weeks. My mom had told the doctors not to allow me phone calls, and since my cell phone was a casualty of the bomb, I had been cut off from the outside world. I was actually half-way excited to go back to school.

I woke up an hour earlier than I used to have too, since I had to take a shower. Showers were tricky these days. My arms were still bandaged up, so I had to wrap up my arms in the plastic covers that came off the newspapers. The second healing had closed the burns on my stomach, so I didn't have to worry about covering my mid-section with plastic, I just had to be careful not to irritate the skin. My face, on the other hand, was still a problem. It was no longer an open festering wound, but the burn was still there, and there was still a chance of infection if it got irritated. So I had to apply a bandage, cover that with plastic, and seal it with medical tape.

After the extremely long shower, getting dressed took about twenty minutes. I had my clothes all ready to go, but physically putting on my t-shirt took about fifteen minutes because of my stupid arms. Once I had all my clothes on, I had to re-wrap my arms and take the bandages off my face. My doctor said my face was fine enough to brave the sunlight, but I seriously doubted him. I sat down in front of my mirror and colored my burn until it matched the color of my skin. I could still tell it was there, but it made me feel better. I brushed the remnants of my hair, which fell just short of my shoulders, and added in my colors. A thump on my door reminded me I had to go, so I rushed out of my bedroom, carefully put my backpack on my shoulder, and turned myself invisible. My parents had allowed me to return to Aunt Wu's house after they had security cameras installed and my promise to stay invisible whenever I left or came back. I walked down the newly installed staircase and raced to the bus stop. The freshmen stared at me as I made myself visible. Their eyes went from my face to the bandages on my arms and back again, but I ignored them and leaned against the lamp post, watching the clouds until the bus arrived.

When I walked on the bus I took my usual seat next to Ethan. He and the rest of the gang(minus Warren but that was expected) crowed around to hug me until the bus driver screamed at them. They stayed silent until we lifted off, but then the barrage of questions began.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened? Were you scared?"

"What happened to your arms?"

"Why did you cut your hair?"

"That thing on your cheek looks like a sun." That earned Zach a good thrashing from Magenta.

I laughed off their questions and just told them, "Later. I'll explain everything later."

When the bus touched down, I saw Lash waiting for me near our tree. I told the guys I would tell them about everything during lunch, and rushed off the bus. Lash gave me a hug, just as carefully as he did the night of my 'accident'. "How are you?"

"Better now. Thanks."

"Are they freaking out?"

"Kind of, but not too badly. Besides, I had like, three weeks to prepare for the questions, I should be ready to answer."

"Come on, lets go say hi to your favorite teacher ever." He grabbed my hand and led me to Mad Science. The students in the halls gave us a wide berth. It felt weird, being the cause of it. They used to give us space because they were afraid of Lash, but now they were all staring at me. My pace quickened. "Show no fear." Lash whispered.

I kept my face as calm and happy looking as possible –I even smiled at a few people, but I was completely relieved to step into Mr. Medulla's class. I got a few "welcome back"'s and a giant hug from Larry, whom Lash had to physically pull off me. I gave everyone a wave and dumped my backpack at me seat. I pulled out a thick stack of papers and gave them to Mr. Medulla.

"Very good, very good. Thank you Kira. I assume you...wrist is working fine?"

"It's just dandy. Kind of chunky, but fine."

"That's good. Today we're working propulsion systems. I assume you've read?"

"Uh. Sure." I said as I went back to my seat. "Do you know anything about propulsion systems?" I asked Larry.

"Nope."

I sighed and let my hands fall to the desk. My left hand let out a metallic clank, and I cursed. A little square of paper fell onto my desk in front of me. I opened it up, and found an entire page of notes on propulsion systems. "Thank you, Lash."

The rest of the morning went pretty smoothly. Most of my teachers let me opt out of taking notes, though I still took a couple so I wouldn't fall completely behind.

After English, Will walked me to lunch. The lunch lady gave me an extra serving of pudding, which was greatly appreciated after the fourth, "Is is true you tried to slit your wrists?"

We sat down at our table, and were joined by the rest of the gang, including Lash. He took the seat to my right and stole a bite of my second pudding. "How was your morning?"

"Not bad." I told him before looking at the gang. "Can you guys do me a favor and spread the word that I didn't try to off myself?"

"Of course!" Layla said.

"So what did happened?" Will asked.

"Pipe bomb."

"A what?"

"Someone hooked a pipe bomb up to the door to the apartment, and I set it off."

"Who did it?"

"Why?"

"I don't know." I lied. "We know it was a regular person, since the technology was no where near our level, but the police are still trying to figure out who did it."

"I bet it was for your Aunt. She's evil." Anna said. The group laughed.

"Naw, they're pretty sure it was for me."

They didn't say anything for a while as they started to eat.

"How bad were you hurt?" Magenta asked.

"Badly. The explosion catapulted me into the wall of the building next door, which broke my spine and my leg. As you can see my arms and hands were badly burned, as well as my face. And I had some burns on my chest and stomach. But the healers fixed my legs and my spine, as well as most of my major burns. I'm pretty scarred up, but hey, I'm alive, so I don't really care."

"That sucks."

"When you say chest..."

"Above my boobs, Zach."

"Oh, that's good." Lash kicked him under the table.

"What? I said that's good!"

"That's really horrible, Kira." Ethan said. "Why would someone try to hurt you? You didn't deserve this at all."

"Yes, she did." Warren growled. He got up and walked away from the table, leaving the rest of the group in shock. I grabbed onto Lash's hands. "Please don't." I could feel his eagerness to go after Warren and pummel his face, "Let him go."

After a few seconds Lash calmed down. The group was staring at us. I sighed. "Can you guys come over to my house tonight? I have to tell you something."

"Should I..." Will pointed in the direction Warren took.

"No. Warren already knows."


	13. It's hard that the way you feel

**A/N: I want to say thanks to ****_won't be the Victim_ and ****_Fyre of the Funeral Pyre_, my two lovely reviewers for the last chapter! I know it wasn't my best, but trust me, it will get better...but only with your help. I would love every single one of you if in your next review, if you choose to review, you would write something about the story you **_didn't_** like. It would really help me get a feel for what I can do to improve the story, and my writing in general. Thanks! **

* * *

They came over one by one, smiling, laughing as if they were going to go see a movie and have a great time. I really didn't want to ruin their mood, but I knew as soon as I started talking things were going to go downhill quickly. I herded the group into my bedroom, since, especially after the bomb incident, my Aunt wanted nothing to do with anything super hero related. Will and Layla took over my bed, just sitting next to each other of course, and Ethan and Anna sat on the floor next to them. Zach and Magenta stole the two chairs I had in my room by my desk, and were busy digging through my computer while I sat down against the wall across from them. We were all waiting for Lash, who was in the kitchen heating up some nachos.

"You know, it's pretty hard to upset Warren." Will said. I stared at him. A second ago he was laughing at something with Layla, and now the look on his face could stop traffic.

"I know."

"Warren can't even hear your name without cringing. He fucking _smiled_ when he told me you got blown up."

"I–"

"Nachos are up...what?" Lash was met with complete silence when he walked in the room. He took a seat next to me and brought the plate around to everyone. They all took some, except for Will.

"Where were you last year man? You're freaking useful." Zach said as he stuffed his face.

"Thanks, I guess." Lash's face reddened.

"Well, I guess I should start. I have some basic rules though: no trying to kill me. Agreed?"

"Agreed." They all said.

"Okay, so you all know Warren hates me. He should. He has every right to hate me, and you all do too, because I've been lying to you."

"You might want to start on the sympathy track Kira." Lash whispered.

"Fine. I'm going to start at the beginning then. You guys all know being a superhero wasn't my life long dream. When I got my powers, I didn't tell anyone. Just Mellie, because she could keep a secret like no one else. But someone else found out. We were being stupid twelve year olds and pranking on tourists, and one of my neighbors saw me, and saw what I was doing. And he wasn't a good kid. He belonged to the gang that had control over my neighborhood, and he told his boss. So, long story short, they blackmailed me into working for them. They would have killed my parents if I refused. So I did. I spent a couple years doing their dirty work, mostly jacking cars."

"Then, on my last run with them, they made me help take a live car, one with a driver. I was so freaked afterwards that I went right to the police and got the entire gang busted. Because of that, the police relocated my family and myself, and I got a one way ticket to Sky High. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, cause they could find me, but I guess it doesn't matter now since they already found me. Officer Michaels, the lead officer in my case, thinks it was the gang that tried to blow me up. But anyway, my punishment was Sky High, and community service, which is where I go after school. I don't get tutored, I go and put on a gross orange vest with Lash and pick up trash along the highway."

They didn't say anything. I couldn't look at them, but I could feel their eyes on me.

"You stole Warren's car."

"Yes." My voice cracked.

"That's why you freaked when you heard about it." Anna said.

"Yes! I didn't know it was him. They never told me who's car I stole, and I never asked. I wanted to tell you all, and him, so bad, but I just couldn't."

Will exploded, "How could you do that to him! We trusted you, and you're no better Lash! You're just a criminal. Warren never did anything to you, he tried to be your friend, and how did you repay him? By lying to him and making him miserable! He didn't know what he did wrong, why you suddenly started treating him like shit, and it was all because you were to much of a coward to own up to what you did!"

"I am a coward! I tried so hard, but I couldn't! I couldn't tell anyone. So I tried to make it better, I even got him a freaking girlfriend! But when I finally did tell, he tried to kill me! Officer Michaels had to pull his gun on Warren to get him to stop." I stopped yelling back when I realized that my hands were glowing bright white. I took a deep breath and shut them off.

"You told Lash, didn't you? Why would you tell him, but not us? We were your friends."

"I spend 12 hours a week chained to him during community service. We had to talk about something. I told him I stole cars, and after I found out about what I did to Warren, he was the only one I could tell!"

"You could have told us, but you didn't." Layla said.

"I couldn't tell you guys without explaining my past! And if I told you about what happened in New York, they would have shipped me away again! I can only tell you now because you're in danger too!"

"Girlfriend?" Zach muttered to himself.

"You have no idea how badly you hurt Warren, do you? This year has sucked for him, and at the route of every problem seems to be you. You're like poison." Will wasn't screaming anymore, but the anger dripped off his words. By this point I was shaking with silent tears. Lash had wrapped his arms around me, but it wasn't helping.

"I know, okay? I know!" My voice broke.

"Can you all stop screaming and realize she said she got Warren a girlfriend! Girl. Friend." Zach commanded. "And Will you're putting a hole in her mattress."

Magenta let out a snort.

"Not funny Maj." Will said before he turned back to me. "What girlfriend?"

"I don't know her name, I call her Shirley Temple."

"What powers does she have?"

"Is she upperclassmen?"

"Is she hot?"

"She...doesn't go to our school." They quieted when they realized what that meant. I had nothing against regular people, none of us did, but we all knew having a relationship with one is complicated. That's why most super heros marry within the job. Having to explain to your partner that you have superpowers is not an easy thing, and usually doesn't go over well.

"Getting him a girlfriend doesn't make up for what you did." Will said after a while.

"I know."

"And lying to us was really uncool." Ethan added.

"I know."

"Can you leave for a minute? We need to conference." Will asked, and my jaw dropped.

"What?"

"Leave." I ignored the fact that they were sitting in my room, and walked out into the living room. I expected Lash to follow me, but he stayed with the rest of them.

"Traitor." I muttered as I threw myself onto the couch. I instantly regretted the move, and I rolled onto the floor. My arms and back ached horribly from the awkward way I hit the sofa. I spent the next five minutes trying not to move my body at all. To fill the time, I make the light in the ceiling fan turn off and on every time I blinked. It took me a while to get the timing right, but after a few minutes I had it down pat.

Bli-_lightoff-_nk.

I'd stare until I couldn't hold my eyes open.

Bli-_lighton-_nk.

Then I'd stare until I could see nothing but large purple spots and had to blink them away. After I got tired of turning the light on and off I just started switching the color at random. Soon the colors started moving to the ticking of the clock, which seemed to get louder with each passing second.

"What on Earth is taking them so long?"

"Sorry, I just stopped to admire the view," Lash said. I squealed and sat up quickly. Through the spots I could see him standing at the entrance to the room. "What are you doing on the floor?"

"Jumped on the couch..."

"And missed?" He snorted.

"Basically. Can I come back in now? Or do I not even want to?"

Lash stretched his arms over and picked me up. "Can't tell you. Come on." He grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallway. I was anxious to go in, but at the same time it felt like I was walking to my execution. These people were about to decide my high school fate. They could ostracize me from the other students, because if I was kicked out of Stronghold's group, I had to be some form of evil incarnate. And even if they choose to still like me, if one of them talked, even just a small slip of the tongue, I was going to be on the next plane out of Maxville.

I stopped Lash when we reached my door. He raised an eyebrow as I put my hands behind his neck. I pressed my lips against his and melted into the comfort of his kiss. When the door flew open I turned us invisible.

"You know, we can still hear you two," Anna said. "Even if we can't see you."

Lash gave me one last peck before I made us visible. We walked into the giggle filled room, and I reclaimed my spot on the floor. "What was that for?" Lash asked softly.

"Luck." I responded before looking at everyone. They were all wearing their poker faces, so I turned to Ethan, the worst liar in the bunch. I started at him until he twitched, and flashed me a brief smile. That was all I needed. I was in.

"So we talked about it," Will started "and though what you did was horrible, it wasn't all your fault."

"Some of the lying was necessary." Layla said.

"Though you should have just told us everything after your freak out, and not have waited until you were almost killed." Anna added.

"As I was saying, we forgive you, but seriously, no more lying. You have to come clean about everything, and no more hiding anything in the future. We're going to be super heros one day. If you can't trust us to help you, who can you trust?"

"You guys have no idea how much that means to me."

"And we'll take to Warren for you."

"Oh, thank you! But you guys do realize that you're in as much danger as I am if you continue to be friends with me, right? I don't know what they're going to try next, if they try anything at all. I don't want you guys to get hurt."

"I think we can handle it. We took down Royal Pain and her idiots pretty easily, no offense Lash."

"None taken, you guys kicked the crap out of us." Lash responded, sounding a little sullen despite himself.

"Of course, it was mostly because of me." Zach said. Layla threw a pillow at his face. "Whatever Lay. Group hug? Don't make me glow on you. Hug!" Zach tackled Magenta in the chair next to him, and Ethan and Anna joined in. I looked at Will and Layla, and we shrugged and gave ourselves over to the inevitable hug. "Lash, hug us."

"Do I have to?"

"This is a historic moment, douchebag. Hug us." Zach commanded. Lash sighed and wrapped his arms around the entire group. "Could you be any more lame?"

"Probably."

"Ow," Anna shrieked. "Kira, what's that?"

"Crap, sorry." I made the monitoring device visible. "After a while I forget I'm wearing it."

"What is it?"

"Tracking device."

"Tracking device?"

"Yep. An indestructible hunk of metal that informs my parents exactly where I am at all times, and what I'm doing. Medulla made it for me."

"That's a horrible violation of your personal privacy! How you can stand it?" Layla asked.

"It's not too bad. Besides, I would have been shipped away without it."

"What's the point of it?" Will asked.

"If I get kidnapped, my parents and police will know where I am."

"What if they just kill you?"

"Then they'll be able to find my body."

"You're too morbid."

"I just got blown up a few weeks ago, let me have my morbidness." I grumbled.

"Okay, emo queen, is there any other hidden objects on your body or secret spy plans you've got going on?" Magenta asked.

I wanted to tell them that there was nothing else, that everything is fine, but I couldn't lie to them anymore. The breath I took, and the words that followed were shaky. "My uh, powers. They're not really working."

None of them spoke, except for Lash. "What are you talking about? You just had that thing invisible! And the light, just before, that was you..."

"Some of my powers are still working. My colors and invisibility work, but not anywhere near as long as they used to. I can't even change anything permanently anymore. And my holograms and copy tattoos are gone."

"Copy tattoos?"

"It's hard to explain, instead of trying to visualize the tattoo on someone's skin, I would kind of lift a copy of one off of a picture and into your skin. It's more exact, since I suck at visualizing. It was partly responsible for how I never got caught."

"How was it only partly responsible?"

I turned my hair into a rich chestnut color, and paled my skin until I could pass as a cloud. I threw in a few freckles on my face as well. "Because we were new people every time we made a hit. If we were ever seen, the cops would go hunting for the wrong people."

"That's so weird. You're like Kira, but you're totally not." Zach said.

We stayed holed up in my room for about another half hour. For a while we talked about my powers, but after about five minutes we decided to lose the depressing discussion and just be. Lash refilled the empty plate of nachos and Anna turned on my boom box. We listened to the music and ate, and talked like we were regular kids. Who was trashing who at school, the latest concerts and sales at the mall took over our minds. No stupid super powers or bombs or tests on lazer beams.

It was pretty nice.


	14. Means You Always Seem to Lose

**A/N: Wahnana...AP TESTSshort chapters! :(  
**

**Disclaimor: I do not own Sky High or any recognizable characters, and I do not own the Chapter titles from 10 onward, nor do I profit from this little tale of mine.**

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur of tests and hushed words. Teachers were going into overdrive to finish and test the material they needed to have done before Christmas break. Seniors, Warren and Lash included, were trying to finish their potential partner surveys, the entire 20 page packet, so they could spend the second half of the year training together, and the rest of the students were doing everything they could to stay out of the seniors' way.

We, on the other hand, were only avoiding one senior, a girl named Lissy Moore. She was the school's resident gossip mill. She knew everything about everyone, and normally she knew more about you than you did yourself. Telepaths always do. Most of us had no trouble avoiding the girl. Lunch was no problem: she sat on the other side of the room with a few other seniors, and the hundreds of adolescent minds crammed into one room did enough to mask our thoughts. Lash and Will both shared a class with her, but they were pretty good at filling their heads with other thoughts. Will had power development with her, but he said she spent all her time drooling over one of the other seniors in the class. Lash had a first aid and basic medicine class with her, but he promised that if he thought of me, it would in no way involve my powers. I hit him for it, but as long as it works, then I'll let the boy be a little pervert.

I still heard snippets of conversation about me throughout the halls, but every day I walked in the front door without any new wounds lessened the incessant, idiotic questions. Today, I only had to tell 3 people that 'yes, getting blown up hurt,' which was a big improvement from the beginning of the week.

I had also almost managed to get a smile out of Warren during Power Development. It wasn't much, but it was something. I'd been doing my best to let him know how sorry I was during power development and lunch, and the rest of the group were doing all they could the rest of the day. The first couple days after I came back I tried to start deep conversations, but it usually wound off in yelling. After that, I switched to seemingly mindless but super friendly chatter. All I had to do this morning was mention Shirley Temple and he got that cheezy little lovesick grin on his face. I still haven't been able to find out her name, but Will was working on it. And if anyone could get Warren to lighten up, it would be Will.

After Warren let the smile slip he went to go train with one of the other seniors. I went back over to Anna and Ethan, who were pretending, quite badly, to watch one of Mr. Sald's demonstrations on the proper way to duck and shoot. Their eyes were on him, but their lips were moving way to fast to be paying any sort of attention. I took a seat behind them.

"What are you two whispering about?"

"Katie's not here."

I paused. "Which one? There's like five in this school."

"She's the copycat." Anna said.

"Oh. Her." I had nothing against the girl, she was a sweetheart, but didn't just copy your powers, she stole them from you. "So what?"

"She never misses school. And we had a huge test today."

"She probably just forgot to study and wanted the day off. That's what kids do." I told her.

"Girls! If you aren't going to watch then go practice your powers." Mr. Sald growled in the middle of his demonstration. Anna and I got up and walked over to an empty corner in the room.

"Have you made any progress?" She asked quietly.

"Not really." I said as Anna morphed into my Dad. My father's frame started emitting a girlish giggle. "Can you at least try to act like a man when you change into my father?"

"Nope. But is there anything you want to tell me?"

"About what?"

"About a certain Mr. Stretch-Boy who is starting to dominate your feelings?" Anna wiggled my dad's eyebrows.

"Anna! I hate it when you do that!"

"So? Tell!"

"There is nothing to tell. He's a great guy."

"You're no fun."

"Well, why don't you tell me about Ethan?" Anna, my Father rather, blushed, then vanished. "Anna?"

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She paused. "Kira, don't make me go invisible like that, it's unnerving not being able to see yourself. Change me back."

"I didn't do it."

"What do you mean you didn't do it? Are your powers freaking out or something?"

"I don't know. They shouldn't do this!" I groaned. "My invisibility powers are fine! Were fine."

"We have to go ask one of the teachers."

"No! They can't know about my powers."

"But I can't stay like this!"

"Then let me fix it." I had no idea how to fix something I didn't consciously do. I tried to lift the invisibility the way I usually did, but I failed miserably.

"This isn't working Kira!" Anna squealed in my father's voice. Suddenly she was back, but not as my father, as her regular self. "Oh, thank you!"

"I didn't do that."

"Then what the hell is going on? All I did was change back into myself."

Something clicked in my brain. "Anna, my dad's power is invisibility."

"So?"

"You must have used it!"

"But I can't do that Kira, you know that. I can only change into the people."

"That's the only explanation that makes sense though."

"Maybe you just don't want to admit that your powers are worse than you thought." She said harshly.

"Anna!"

"I'm serious. You're losing it and you're too big to ask anyone for help, just like before." Anna stomped away and rejoined Ethan, leaving me shaking where I stood. Was she right? Were my powers acting on their own accord now? The thought chilled me to the bone. I made my way inconspicuously toward the classroom door and bolted through it.

I made it about ten feet down the hallway when a voice stopped me.

"Bu xia ke reng." _Class isn't over yet._

"Ke jian bei ngoh." _It is for me._

"Why? What happened?" Warren asked.

"I can't be near people if I can't control my powers. It's not safe."

"So they were telling the truth about that, huh?"

"Obviously if my powers turned Anna invisible without my consent." My voice softened. "I couldn't turn her back. What if she had been stuck like that?"

"You would have found a way to get her back."

"But–"

"Sow seng!" _Shut up!_ "Stop doubting yourself. You would have found a way."

"Look, I know I've said this a million times already..."

"Quit apologizing, it's getting annoying." He grumbled.

"Then will you accept my apology?"

"You're never going near my car again."

"Seriously? But...it's so awesome!"

"Never again."

"Fine, keep me away from the Cuda. See what I care." I crossed my arms and, after a short pout, gave him my best smile.

"Then apology accepted."

"Really?"

He nodded, and I gave him a bear hug. After a second Warren pushed me off of him. He brushed off his leather jacket.

"So now that you're talking again, what's Shirley's name?"

"Jenny." He flashed the classic goofy smile of the smitten teenaged boy as he said her name. It was cute on him.

"What's she like?"

"Like a little ball of fire." He said as he walked back to the classroom door. "Well?"

"Do I have to? I'm already out here."

"Hui, Crayola!" _Go!_

"Fine." He opened the door for me. I walked back into the room, ignored the stares of my classmates and the questioning look the teachers gave me.

"Miss Roberts?" Mrs. Deveux called out. I picked at my arm bandages, a nervous habit I had developed over the past few days.

"Yes?"

"Principal Powers wishes to see you in her office." She announced in a curious tone. "It's urgent."

If my parents had been watching my monitor they would have seen my heart rate spike. Principal powers was not the 'urgent' kind of person.

"I'll see you at lunch, okay Warren?"

He shrugged and walked over to Ethan and Anna, who looked to be on the brink of an argument. I left the room and started weaving my way down the halls. She probably just wanted to talk about getting back on track with the community service, since I had missed so many weeks. I focused my mind on that as I walked into the administration wing. Principal Powers' secretary stopped me from going straight into her office, so I left my name and sat on one of the uncomfortable plastic yellow chairs. The longer I sat staring at the clock, the more assured I was that it was over some stupid little thing. If it was important I wouldn't be left waiting out here, right?

"You can go in now." The old secretary said. She pressed a button on her desk and Powers' door opened. The first thing I saw when I entered the room was Powers, with a strained smile on my face.

Then I saw my mom.

She looked about ten years older then she was just two days ago when she left for the airport. Her normally pristine hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her face was set in a grim line.

"Why aren't you in Maine?" I asked, perplexed. "You called last night, and you were both in Maine. Don't you have a shift right now?"

"Hunny, you have to come with me, okay? We need to go see Dad."

"Why? What's wrong with Dad?" My voiced wavered. "He was just here! He was fine."

"He got hurt this morning doing a run." Mom said as I went numb. She stood up, grabbed my hands, and looked into my eyes. "He's okay. He's going to be okay, but you need to come with me to the hospital."

"Okay." I agreed. She dragged me out of Principal Powers' office so fast we were practically running. I couldn't help buy picture my dad lying bandaged up in a hospital somewhere, alone and in pain, and the thought made me whimper.

When we reached the front steps of the school I stopped. "How did you get here?"

"That." She pointed to a new looking Lexus as she dragged me toward it. My feet stumbled along with my brain, but my mother just kept dragging me along.

"How did you get here in a Lexus?" I asked as I opened the passenger door and got in.

"I borrowed it from a friend of your father." She said as she got into the other side and buckled up. "Needless to say, it's not a normal Lexus."

She started the engines and the car peeled down the bus's landing strip.

"Mo chan? Mom, Mommmmm!" I shouted as we reached the end of the runway, without any magical wings to keep us flying. She looked perfectly calm as we began to plummet toward the Earth. My screams echoed in the car until she shifted gears, and I heard the same metallic clank the bus made when it sprouted its wings. She pulled us out of the nosedive and we began soaring through the air.

"What the hell?"

"Sorry, I've always enjoyed doing that."

"Since when? You've always hated roller coasters." I asked as I caught my breath.

"This is much safer than a roller coaster, Kira."

"Whatever." I excused her weirdness on account of my dad's condition. "So what happened to Dad?"

"There was a heist at the local bank. He went in to try to help the hostages. They shot him."

"I think I'm going to puke."

"Not on the leather!" I stared at her. "I borrowed the car, remember. I can't give it back to them with puke on it."

I tried to roll down the window to get some fresh air, but it wouldn't budge. "Can you unlock the window?"

"I don't think so." She said pleasantly. "We'll be touching down soon. Can you turn us invisible?"

"Isn't that dangerous? You won't be able to see the car, what if we crash when we land?" The door was locked. I tried to open the latch, but nothing worked.

"Please turn us invisible."

"Bat. Ni ji tai ngai him!" _No. That's too dangerous. _I shrieked, starting to freak out completely. "Ngoh bu hui!" _I won't!_

She stared at me, completely uncomprehending. She reached into the door pocket and pulled out a black pistol. I felt as if I had just been punched. "Stick to the English, and turn this goddamn car invisible right now." She cocked the pistol and aimed it at my head.

I complied. "Who are you? Where's my mom? What did you do to her?"

"You don't need to know the answer to any of those questions. Now shut up and don't try anything funny."

"Pok gai!"

"English!" Fake-Mom growled.

"Take me back to school."

"You're not going anywhere near that place."

"I said take me back."

"And I said shut up or this bullet is going through your head." I heard her shuffling around with the gun as we approached the ground. "As soon as we land make us visible." We touched down smoothly in the middle of the road, and I made the entire car visible except for me. Even without me in the car, there was no denying it:

I was being kidnapped.

"Where the hell are you taking me?"

"You're brattier then they said you would be." The woman grumbled and pressed a button on the steering wheel. A puff of pink gas shot in my face. In the back of my head, a little beeping noise started to go off. My eyelids grew heavy, much to heavy to keep up.

"Nighty night."

* * *

Not going to translate this one. Just know it means something that is very, very offensive.


	15. Seize the day, the one you left behind

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own ANYTHING, but the characters that were not in the movie. Disney owns the rest.  
**

* * *

As I regained consciousness, all I felt was a steady pain in my wrist. Every few seconds the pain would become unbearable, but it would subside within seconds. There was a voice, at first. A very loud one. It accompanied the pain, but after a while it faded out. Whatever knocked me out made my head fuzzy, and my body heavy. I tried moving my limbs, but I could barely twitch a muscle.

I could barely concentrate on keeping myself awake, until the voice returned. After listening to the irritating grit of my Fake-Mother's voice for a few moments, I was able to focus enough to open my eyes. The whiteness of the room blinded me momentarily. Soon I could see a sideways pair of stilettos in front of my eyes. It was then I realized how awkwardly I was sprawled out on the floor. I was lying flat on my stomach, with my arms were stretched out in front of me, and locked to the ground: not because of the drugs, but because of the shackles. My legs weren't restrained, but they were bent at odd, painful angles. I whimpered.

"Finally, you're awake now, aren't you?"

I said nothing. The stilettos left my sight, and I felt one enter my rib cage.

"Yes." I gasped.

"Good. Now what is this thing on your wrist? What does it do?"

"Why am I here? Who are you?"

The foot connected with my ribs again. "You're in no position to ask questions."

"There's not much else I can do right now." I said. She chuckled.

"Very well. You can call me Shifter. Just guess what I can do." She paused. "As to why you're here, well, let's just say that we wanted you out of the way."

"I have a friend like that." I said, trying to see what kind of reaction I'd get from her. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Are you serious? Who are you trying to compare me too, the guinea pig or Anna? Their powers have nothing on mine. Nothing." I swore silently before she continued. This wasn't some random freak-pot. She had done her homework. "Now don't flatter yourself, you're not that special, and you're not alone. You just happen to be bait."

"Bait for what?"

"Now, I bet you think you're quite clever. Asking simple questions, trying to trick me into revealing my plan. Well, it's not going to work, you know why? Because even if I told you every last detail, there is no way you can stop me. You're trapped here, no chance of escape. You can't go running off to go help your friends. Just ask the others."

I lifted my head and waited for my eyes to focus before looking around. There were no windows. The large room was lit by eerily white lights. I was in a clear cell, in the middle of dozens. Each cell was full of kids, and a few adults. There had to be at least 30 others trapped by the same shackles that held my arms. The ones that were awake sat silently, staring off into space. They all looked defeated.

"Now then, back to _my_ question. What is that thing on your wrist? None of us can break it, though I think we did manage to break your wrist a bit."

"It's supposed to protect me."

"How, exactly?" Her voice became sharp as daggers.

I groaned as I moved to a sitting position, with my legs stretched out in front of me.

"It failed, that's all that's important. Who are you?"

"What, don't you recognize your teacher?" Fake-Mother shifted into Mrs. Deveux. My jaw dropped in confusion.

"But you were just at school! How did you...?" I couldn't even finish the sentence, but she seemed to get my meaning.

"Let's just say I have a friend, for who time doesn't mean shit." It was Mrs. Deveux alright. Her voice was a bit more husky then usually, but the tall, leggy blond stood with her hands on her hips, with her left foot tapping nervously against the stone floor. She always did that while watching the kids with the more violent powers spar.

"But, why would you? Why did you kidnap me?"

"I told you before, you brat, you're just bait. Your life is not important; you should have let our bomb kill you." She paused. "Everything would have happened a lot cleaner, and we would have had an extra space in your cell. But, this works out nicely too, I think."

"Now, I have to get back to school, lunch break is almost over, and I need to review my student files one last time before the fun begins. Your friends will be here shortly, so just sit tight, though I'm guessing that won't be a problem for you."

Her heels clicked loudly against the floor as she left my cell and walked down the hall. My mind began whirling instantly. _Her bomb? _It wasn't the gang that had tried to kill me, it was some supervillian freak who used to be my teacher?!

"That's what–"

"The extremely detailed records were for in Power Development." A girl's voice cut me off. I looked to the cell on my right and saw a girl about my age, with ruddy skin and long blond hair who looked really familiar. "Sorry, you just had that look of epiphany on your face that everyone here has gotten one by one within the past five hours, and I just couldn't help myself."

"Five hours?"

"For me, anyway. I was the first to arrive. It's about noon now."

"You look..."

"Familiar? I should, I'm in your math class." I said nothing. "My name's Rachel."

"Sorry, I suck with names."

"That's okay."

"So do you know why we're here?"

"Why else? The stupid bitch wants to take over the world."

"But why us?"

"She wanted to get rid of a few students that could put a damper on her plans early on. Lucky us." She muttered angrily. "You're not just bait, most of her goons need their eyesight. For me, well, I can put her little freak-child to sleep before she could do any damage at all."

The ease with which she spoke sent chills down my spine. "You mean kill?"

"No, sleep. You know, that thing you do in your bed every night? I could put her whole freaking army to sleep, which landed me this spacious cell. Ever notice that you're never tired in math class? Well, I can syphon off people's tiredness and collect it, then release it again on random people whenever I want."

"And here I thought math was interesting."

"Poor misguided child."

"So how come you can sit here and joke around?"

"There's nothing else we can do. The guards have guns. The guards have superpowers. We, do not."

"What?"

She sighed at my cluelessness. "I got a much longer speech then you did. Go ahead, try to do something." I concentrated on the white floor beneath my fingertips and sent out a wave of blue. Red. Orange. Pink?

Nothing worked.

"What the hell?"

"It's the shackles. They neutralize powers." She said. "That's why Miss I'm-So-Evil could still use hers."

As she talked I tried to reach my tracking device with my right hand, to activate the alert button, but my arms were to far apart. I could only hope that my parents happen to look at the monitor and realize I wasn't at school.

"How's she planning on doing this anyway? One person can't defeat an entire school."

"She's not just one person. She has, and I quote, a 'small army and a secret weapon.' But she's a freak, so who knows what she really has up her sleeve." Rachel said.

"I just can't wait until I get out of here."

"What makes you think you're leaving after this?"

"I'm bait right? So that means someone is going to be coming for me. They'll get me out." I made myself sound more confident than I felt.

"You're delusional."

"What does delusional mean?" A soft voice asked from outside my cell. When I looked away from Rachel I saw a little girl, maybe five or six years old. Her ice blond hair was pulled back in a pony tail that made her tiny face look sharp, and she clung to a ratty old stuffed bunny that would occasionally disappear in the folds of her white sun dress.

"It means crazy." I said to the strange kid. "Who're you?"

"Marie." She squeezed her bunny as she spoke.

"Hi Marie, do you mind letting us out."

"I'm not stupid." She said snidely. "You're prisoners. Mommy wouldn't like that."

"Your mom is a bad person."

"My mom is awesome. She's letting me take over the school."

"You're taking over the school? How are you going to do that? You're like, five."

"Mommy says I'm stronger then all of you."

"Well, I don't think you're strong enough to break these shackles. Why don't you give it a try?" I asked. She laughed at me.

"I told you I'm not stupid. My mind is stronger than yours, not my body." She opened my cell door and skipped in. She stood about six inches out of my reach, and began hopping up and down in front of my face.

"You can't reach me, you can't reach me!" She started chanting, her voice getting louder and louder with each jump.

"Jeez, shut up!" Rachel screamed.

"You can't talk to me that way!" Marie wailed. "If Mommy would let me take you over I would!"

I heard rushed footsteps coming from down the hall, followed by shouts of anger from the awake students. Soon I could see a familiar figure running toward my cell.

"Son of a bitch!" Rachel and I said at the same time.

"Marie, get out of Kira's cell." Larry said. "She's about to have some company."

"Why the hell are you here?"

"Don't curse in front of my little sister." He said as Marie left the cell to join him. "We're leaving in a few minutes, go get ready." Marie scampered off down the hallway, and Larry stared at me.

"Do you really need to ask me why I'm here?"

"No. I just wanted to know if you were as big of an idiot as I thought you were. You guys can't win."

"Why can't we, cause Royal Paine failed? She was an idiot. She counted on that one stupid machine to take over the entire school. How stupid can a person be? We might be counting on that one little machine that just ran out of the room, but we have a whole army to back her up, not four stupid seniors who are just going along for the ride."

"I still don't get how that one little girl is going to take down Sky High."

"With the help of the very students and teachers who'll be trying to protect it. She's a mind controller. One touch, and you'll do whatever she wants you too."

"So is she following your plan, or are you following hers?"

"What? Are you stupid enough to think we haven't made ourselves an antidote? I had some hope for you. But you didn't die soon enough." He said as he began walking down the hall. "I hope you enjoy your stay, your cell-mates will be arriving shortly."

* * *

Usually I enjoy Interrogation. I know, it sounds weird, but the class is easy. All I have to do is practice sitting in a dark room, all alone, with a single light pointed directly into my corneas. Occasionally the settings will change, but they'll always have the single, blinding light.

Today I was in the rickety wooden chair, the kind where you can tell the makers put no thoughts in towards comfort while they assembled it. Mr. Lopez used duct tape to bind my arms and legs, which got annoying after a while, because I could free myself so easily. I didn't even have to free myself, I could just get up and walk away, still taped to the chair. But this is just practice, so, like always, I let it go.

The room was chilled, the floor felt like a sheet of ice beneath my bare feet. I never really got why they take your shoes. I guess it's supposed to make you feel vulnerable, in a weird way, but they're just punishing themselves. I'm used to the smell of my feet. They aren't.

"Tell me where they are." Mr. Lopez always used a machine that made him sound like an old Darth Vader. "Tell me now."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No."

With every 'no' I gave, the room's temperature dropped about five degrees. Most of the kids complain about this class. They, usually the girls, call it torture. They don't realize that it might come in handy some day.

But as the room got colder, I could feel a pit opening in my gut. I couldn't shake the feeling, even though I knew it had nothing to do with the situation at hand.

"Lash, you're about to get hypothermia. Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?"

"No." So the class became unrealistic at points, but killing students, even on accident, would be frowned upon.

"That's enough for today then. Negative fifteen degrees. Not bad." Mr. Lopez, still with his Vader voice, paused and turned off the spotlight. The room was black, besides the bright purple spots in front of my eyes, for about ten seconds before he turned on the overhead lights. "Go for a jog. Warm up."

I walked out of the room, still binded to the chair, into the hallway. Lisa was there with my shoes and a pair of scissors. She simply stated that I was blue before handing me my shoes and cutting the duct tape. I nodded and began running down the hallways, normally. The warm air burned my lungs, but it felt good on my face.

I ran the loop of lockers around the Interrogations classroom. After my fourth lap, my left leg started cramping, and I slowed to a walk. That's when I heard the buzzing. I moved to the left side of the hallway, and realized that I was by Kira's locker. I found her locker, 303, and frowned when I realized it was the origin of the buzzing. It sounded like a cell phone vibrating.

She didn't have a phone anymore.

I spun the combination to the locker and opened it up. Our prom picture stuck in the door brought a smile to my face, until I looked at the rest of the locket. The bottom was a total mess. Books were thrown on top of each other, and papers were crushed in between the giant texts. On the top shelf, in between some old comic books, was a buzzing orange sidekick. I took the phone and flipped it open. There was a text message.

'_**We have Kira. Call the cops and she's dead. Meet us at Jefferson Park at noon.'**_

I slammed the locker door and took off running, my style, toward her English class. The whole way there I prayed it was some cruel, sick joke; that the bastards who had tried to take her from me once hadn't managed to succeed this time. My feet echoed loudly against the linoleum as I made my strides even bigger. When I reached her classroom I flung open the door. The entire class stared at me when I cursed loudly.

Kira's seat was empty.

"Stronghold." I pointed to Kira's empty seat, then nodded my head toward the hallway. He looked to the teacher for a minute before following me. Will shut the door quietly behind him.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he shook his hair away from his face, something he started doing way too often. I handed him the sidekick. His face scrunched up as he read the message. "Is this real?"

"This is not her phone. She's not in class. I'm guessing it's real." I told him. "Let's get the others then go see Powers."

"Okay." Will said as he took off flying down the hall to the right. I took the left as I tried to remember where everyone was. I knew Ethan and Magenta shared a class down this way, Codes probably. And Warren had his Life After Sky High prep class. I took a sharp right into a stairwell and flipped down the steps. I made my way to the sidekick Math room. I didn't bother knocking as I entered the room.

"Ethan, Magenta, Powers needs you." I told them, making my voice sound as calm as possible.

"_Principal _Powers." The teacher corrected. "Go ahead kids."

When they joined me in the hallway, Ethan closed the door softly behind them. "So what's really going on?" He asked.

"Go wait outside Powers' office for Will and the rest of them. There's something wrong with Kira." I told them.

"She got called down to Powers' office during Power Development. What do they need us for now?" Ethan asked.

I yelled at them to just go. Magenta shook her head and grabbed Ethan's arm. She dragged him down the hallway.

That left just one last person to get, and I was not looking forward to it. The prep class was on the other side of the lower floor, so I ran there without stopping. My shirt had begun sticking to my chest, and I pulled on it nervously when I reached the door. I walked into the dead silent room, with seniors sitting at their own private modules filling out their sidekick survey, and ran from module to module until I found Warren. He was sitting hunched over, with his face buried in his survey. Large, ancient headphones covered his ears. I said his name at least three times before one of the teacher's shushed me. I moved myself a safe distance away from Warren before sending my arm out to poke him.

Warren snarled and flipped around in his chair. He started to say he was working, but he let his sentence stop when he saw who it was.

"You have five seconds to go away."

"Warren..."

"I don't have to be your friend. Get away from me."

"Kira's been kidnapped."

"What?"

"We need to go to Powers' office." I told him. Warren nodded reluctantly and followed me out of the room. We ran up to her office silently. I could tell he was annoyed at my presence, but I couldn't care less. This wasn't about us.

When we got there, I could see that Will had gathered the rest of them. I passed around the cell phone, and explained how I found it. There were mumbles of disbelief as cell phone came back to me, and Will took charge and led the group into the administration office. The secretary gave the younger kids a smile when they walked in the room, but looked a bit nervous when Warren and I brought up the rear.

"We need to see Principal Powers." Will commanded.

"She's busy right now." The secretary said. Will ignore her and pushed into Powers' office, and the rest of us followed. "Hey, wait a minute, you can't!"

Powers looked up at us, surprised; the memo she had been reading completely forgotten.

"What is going on?"

"Kira has been kidnapped." I said as I passed her the cell phone.

"This is ridiculous, I just sent her off with her mother."

"Her mother is in Maine." I said before launching, once again, into the story on how I found the cell phone. Principal Powers looked at the message and frowned.

"I'm sorry kids, but I'm afraid this is just a practical joke. Kira's dad has been in an accident. Her mother came and picked her up less than an hour ago to take her to the hospital. Now you all have to go back to class."

"Call her."

"What?"

"Call Kira's mother." I gave her Mrs. Roberts' work number(I memorized both her parent's contact information after the bomb-incident) and watched as she meticulously dialed the number. She gave us a look that clearly stated we were wasting her time before someone picked up on the other end.

"Yes, is Mrs. Roberts there? Speaking? Well, this is Principal Powers, from Kira's school." She frowned as the other woman started speaking. "Yes, Kira's doing fine with her school work. Do you happen to have the tracking monitor with you? Could you go get it and tell me Kira's location? We're doing an experiment." As Powers' voice grew somber, the group's mood deflated. There was no denying it now. Whoever took Kira from the school was not her mother.

Powers grabbed a pencil and scrawled down an address. She muttered a thank you and hung up the phone. Anna burst out in tears, and Ethan gripped her shoulder as she began chanting 'I shouldn't have yelled at her.'

"Give us the address." I ordered.

"I can't let a group of students go after a missing child." Powers protested, "I'm calling the police."

"Call the police and they'll kill her. We're the best chance she has." My begging seemed to be wearing her down. "Give us the address. Half of us will go to the park, and the other half to wherever she is right now. We'll get her back."

"I just can't believe I let someone walk out with a student of mine. This is horrible."

"It's not your fault, it was shape shifter. They're nearly impossible to spy if you don't know the person well enough." Layla tried to calm down Powers, who looked to be on the verge of tears. It surprised me. From the way Kira talked about her, I thought Powers hated her guts. The principal handed me the piece of paper with the address.

"I'll order you guys a bus to take you back to Maxville. Good luck, and tell no one." She flipped open the phone and stared at the screen as her fingers rolled over buttons. "Here's the phone number for this thing. Call it incase anything goes wrong. In the mean time I'll send it to Mr. Medulla and see what he can make of it."

We left the room and hurried out into the hallway. I checked to make sure we were alone before I started speaking. "You guys go to Jefferson Park and deal with whatever is going on there. I'll go to where she is now."

"Are you crazy? We can't let you go alone." Layla said, her face scrunched up, and I couldn't tell if she didn't want me to go because I'd get hurt, or she just didn't trust me.

"Look, don't worry, I'll bring backup. Someone who'll be able to find her. If she's not at the house, I'll me you guys at the park. Agreed?"

"I'm going with you, Lash." Will said.

"No, you need to be with them. We don't have much time, and you can help them move as fast as possible. I can handle myself." I told them. "You guys go raid Medulla's closet, then catch the bus. Try to be as covert as possible, don't take the bus all the way to the Park. Scout out the place before you go in." I gave Will the number of the sidekick. He took it, memorized the number, then began passing it around. "You guys have to be ready for anything. For anyone, with any power."

"When did you become Mr. Motivational Speaker Father Figure?" Magenta asked. I sighed, and avoided the urge to tell the still weeping Anna to shut up.

"I couldn't do anything last time but watch her bleed. This time. I'm taking charge." I paused, and coughed a little. "Now go get the bus."

"Wait, how are you getting there?" Zach asked, finally piping up.

"You don't need to worry about it."

"Look, you're not Batman, okay? We're a team. You need to tell us everything." Warren said.

"Fine, I'm going to jump off the school. Not really the best way for all of us to travel. I'd live, but I doubt most of you would." I told them. "Besides, I have a pit stop to make."

"Then go, fly boy. You don't have much time either." Magenta said. "Come on Popsicle, Anna, let's go pay Medulla a visit. We'll meet the rest of you on the bus."

* * *

**A/N: How do you all feel about character death? OC or canon, either one.**

**...and in the last chapter, the words that I didn't translate were "pok gai." I forgot that fanfic does not allow asterisks.**


	16. It Seems so Strange

**A/n: Sorry for the wait! But, I just graduated, so no more school to get in the way! Woo!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own sky High, nor do I profit from this story. I only own unrecognizable characters.**

* * *

"Batman did have Robin and Alfred, you know."

"Shut up." I growled at Zach. "Now is not the time."

I watched as Magenta, Anna, and Ethan ran down the hallway toward Medulla's classroom. Lash ran, in the way only he could, in the opposite direction, toward the front doors. I could only assume that he was serious about jumping off the side of the school grounds, and though part of me wished he would crash, I knew he had to know what he was doing. Anyone could tell he would do anything to get that girl back, and hurting himself could jeopardize her safety.

"Warren? Warren, hello?" Will's voice broke my thoughts.

"What?"

"Come on, we need to go to the bus and make a plan." He said. Will grabbed onto the back of my jacket, and did the same to Zach's shirt. He lifted us up and took off, flying down the halls at an obnoxiously fast pace.

"Door!" I said.

"What?" Will asked, briefly turning his head.

"DOOR!" Zach screamed when he caught on to what I was thinking. His outstretched finger pointed to the front doors of the school, at the end of the hallway we had just turned down.

The closed, front doors.

Will slowed down and dropped us right before he flew through the main doors. The shattered glass rained down on our heads. I shook out my hair and dusted off my jacket as I stepped through the broken door.

"If you stretched out my good leather jacket I swear you're dead meat." I said as Zach followed us out into the open air. "Wait, what about Layla?"

"Please, your jacket is fine, and I can only carry two people at once. Besides, last time I tried to do that without warning her she flipped out." Will paused and pointed behind us. I turned around to see Layla coming toward us in a light jog. "Come on, she'll catch up." We followed Will over to the bus area, and he cursed when he realized all the buses were empty.

"Cool it. We have to wait for Ethan and the girls anyway."

"I know, but this is infuriating."

"It's a hostage situation, so they want something." Layla said as she joined us.

"She's right. As long as she doesn't open her stupid mouth they won't kill her. Relax a little." I added.

"How can you be telling me to relax when one of our best friends is in danger?"

"How can you expect to be a super hero if you can't keep yourself calm in difficult situations?"

He didn't say anything for a minute, until "Point taken," came out of his mouth. We stood next to the bus in silence until we saw the rest of the group approaching, with a bus driver in tow. Magenta, Ethan, and Anna, who finally stopped sobbing, were all bogged down with weapons and gadgets. They set them down on the ground between us, and we each chose what suit us best. I took a few stun bombs, Ethan took some fancy metal thing, and the rest chose from various lasers and guns. We boarded the bus and headed right to our regular seats in the back.

"So what's the plan?" Zach asked.

"We're going to go to the park and get her back, right?" Anna asked, sounding a bit confused.

"Are you kidding me, why waste the time? Shouldn't we just go to the house?" Zach asked.

"No. We're sticking to the original plan. We will go to the park at noon. We'll scope the area before hand, Ethan and Magenta can do that, then while they watch, the rest of us will go in and see who's there to meet us. We'll find out what they want, get it, then get Kira back." Will said. "Does that sound like a plan?"

"That's sounds good." Layla said.

"I'll stay behind and keep a watch on things from across the street." I told them.

"But Warren, we need you to make us look intimidating."

"We do not need a big muscly guy to make us look intimidating. That's completely sexist."

"Layla." Will groaned.

"What?"

"Stop."

"Make me–" Will cut her off with a quick kiss. I looked away. It was too cute.

"I hate you." She murmured as the safety straps pinned us to our seats and we took off.

"Hey, does this thing have an invisibility function?" Ethan called to the bus driver.

"No."

"Then can you drop us off a few blocks away from the park?"

"Sure, kid."

"So are you coming with us Warren?"

"I might as well. You guys should find a way to hide those guns."

"Why? Shouldn't we look intimidating?" Magenta asked.

"No, they'll make you look hostile. If a bunch of pathetic kids show up, they won't be as sharp, as on their toes, as they would be if we came in brandishing guns."

"How do you know all this?" Anna asked from the two seats ahead of me, bewildered.

"You learn more serious stuff as an Upperclassman." I told her.

"Since you know everything, what do we do if they want something we don't have?"

"Get it." I said as the bus went in for the landing on an empty side street near the Lantern. We rode in absolute silence to the park; the Popsicle didn't even have anything to say. I started to get antsy as we got closer and closer to the park. Soon we were a less than two blocks away, and even Will noticed that something wasn't right.

"Hey, you said you'd drop us off a few blocks away."

"Change of plan."

"You're not allowed to change the plan! You're a bus driver." Magenta told him. The old man jammed on the brakes, and we came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. When the man stood up, he was no longer in his bus driver uniform, but in a disgustingly tight red supersuit.

"I am not a bus driver." We all tried to break free of our bonds at his words, but only Will, Ethan, and Magenta were able to. Magenta took to her guinea pig form and began to gnaw on Zach's restraints. Before Will could fly at him, the man opened the bus door, and a large metal can came flying in. A purple gas started filling the bus as the ex-bus driver walked out the door. I watched in horror as he transformed into a brick wall that encased the entire bus. We were plunged into darkness, but Zach came to the rescue.

"Break the windows!" Ethan screamed as he reformed. I gave up trying to free myself and went to power up, but the look on Ethan's face stopped me cold. "Don't Warren! We don't know what this is! It could blow us all up." I slouched in my seat, realizing there was absolutely nothing I could do but bust through the window next to me, which I did. That alone made my fingers itch for the relaxing heat.

"Will, get us out!" Zach called before he was overcome by a coughing fit. The gas was starting to reach our heads.

"No!" Anna screamed; stopping Will just inches before he reached the wall. "This is Brick! Don't you remember what happened to Ravenwing when she tried to bust through him?"

"But I'm practically invincible!"

"So was she." Anna told him. Ethan glided over to Anna and began whispering fervently to her. I covered my mouth with my jacket as the coughing began. It started with just a small scratch in the back of my throat, but within seconds my eyes were watering, and my chest was aching from the constant coughing. Through the tears, I could see Will go to punch the wall, and his surprise when his fist went through an empty whole. I saw his forehead connect with the wall instead, before he could stop his momentum. He dropped to the ground.

I started to feel sleepy. I looked around, and Zach, who was still dimly glowing, and Magenta were already passed out. Ethan was swaying next to another Magenta, who was switching in between her two forms. I couldn't see Layla, who was behind me, but I could see plants breaking through the windows at the front of the bus. But the can was still spewing out the gas faster than Layla could break the windows. Soon the plants stopped moving, and I knew Layla was out too. Then all I saw was purple.

* * *

Rachel and I were left in stunned silence when Larry left with his sister. I could tell we both wanted to utter the same, unbelievable '_Larry? Seriously?_'but neither of us wanted to make it more real then it already was.

"Do you think they'll really capture them?"

"Unfortunately, yes." She looked at me like I had just killed her puppy. "Look at this place! They've spent months, maybe even years, planning this day. Mrs. Devuex probably had like twenty backup plans waiting for the group if they beat the first attack. They don't stand a chance."

"Way to be optimistic."

"Yeah, that was never one of my strong suits."

"So how are we going to escape?"

"We're going to piss them off."

"How does that help?"

"The more interaction we have with the guards, the more chances we have to get ourselves out. If we can get the guards into our cells, we might have a chance to overpower them."

"You're crazy." Rachel said, exasperated.

"So?"

"Good point. So what do we do first?"

We spent the next 30 seconds screaming at the top of our lungs. If the walls weren't plastic, I could have sworn they'd have shattered. Some of the kids around us, who were awake, joined in. Others just tried to cover their ears. As I screamed, I maneuvered myself to the point where I was on my feet, bent down, with my shackles at their tightest. I had to sit through months of Unarmed Combat, and if it didn't help me now, I was seriously going to kill the teacher when I got out.

Rachel saw what I was doing and followed suit. She got into the crouching position right before a cat came running down the hallway.

I recognized that cat.

"You stupid bitch! You've been spying on me!" I coughed out after I stopped screaming. "And I fed you."

Shifter hissed at me and transformed back to her human self. "You think I actually ate that crap? Now what are you screaming about?"

"Just testing our lungs out. They work great, don't they?"

"Of course. Testing your lungs. That's such a smart thing to do, especially now that your friends have arrived."

"What are you talking about?"

"Did you honestly think those brats would put up a good fight? They went down faster than you did." Shifter informed us as she unlocked my cell. She took a few steps in, but was just out of my reach. She clapped her hands together twice, in rapid succession, and soon I could see the lifeless bodies of my friends being carried down the hallway by a bunch of goons. For my own sanity, I had to assume they were alive. Why else would they be bringing them to a jail?

When I saw Will being carried in, just as unconscious as the rest of them, I really felt like crying. If these guys could take down an invincible kid, they should have no problem taking over the rest of the school.

The goons, each wearing a black ski mask, brought all of the group into my cell, since it was the only one with only a single occupant. They were all secured into their shackles when I realized Lash wasn't among them.

There was hope.

In my glee, I kicked out at the nearest goon. My foot connected with the back of his kneecap, and he toppled over.

"Kira, I'm ashamed at your behavior. You should treat your knew owner with respect."

"Owner?" I echoed, bewildered.

"When this is all said and done, I really have no use for you. And these two expressed some interest, so I figured I'd let them take you. I'm sure you'd enjoy their company, with a little help from my Marie, of course." While she was talking, the guy I had laid out was helped up by another masked goon. When they took off the ski masks, I had to swallow the vomit that forced its way up in my throat.

"Miss us?" Johnny asked, who now sported a jagged scar on the right side of his face.

"Jail was just not fun without you." Andre, the one I had tripped, said before his fist connect with my head. Then I heard nothing.

* * *

The fall from the school was nothing I wasn't used to. Most of the time, the school didn't have to worry about anyone ditching but the flyers and the teleporters, but when you could turn yourself into a parachute, jumping off the side of a building wasn't that hard. It was kind of scary the first time out, but after that it wasn't that bad. I even got pretty good at steering myself to wherever I wanted to go. Usually it was the arcade, but today I was stopping somewhere else.

After jumping off the school, I waited until I was only a few thousand feet above the ground to puff up. I had discovered it was best to wait until I could see the individual buildings of Maxville below me, or else the wind could take me miles off course in a matter of seconds. The force of the wind on my body made it hard to keep my eyes open, and my lungs for that matter, but I managed to make out the Maxville Tower, in the center of the business district. I made another reference point with Jefferson Park, and angled my body slightly to the left before stretching out. The wind caught my body and sent me flying toward the outskirts of town, right toward the elementary school. As soon as I was overhead my target, I turned my body back to normal, and waited until I was about two hundred feet above the swing set to inflate again.

Belatedly, I realized that the playground was full of children.

I could hear a few screams as I dropped closer to the ground. When I could make out the faces of the kids, I let my body return to normal, and fell the remaining few feet. I landed on my feet next to a small little kid who looked ready to piss himself.

"W-who're you?"

"A stupid kid who jumped off a building. Which, by the way, you shouldn't do. Got that?"

The kid nodded his head and I took off running, as normally as I could manage, toward the front doors. When I entered the building, the secretaries in the main office saw me, and started yelling, but they were too old to follow me. I ran up the nearest staircase, until I was on the third floor, and made my way to room 307. Instead of barging in the door, I made myself come to a complete stop, before politely knocking on the window pane. The teacher, a youngish girl who looked to be fresh out of college, waved me in.

"Can I help you?" She asked at the same time Parker called out my name.

"I need my sister." Parker jumped out of her desk and skipped over to the doorway.

"You can't just take your sister out of class young man. How do I even know you two are related?" I could tell she was itching to continue the lecture since it was directed toward someone that had the attention span to actually listen to it, but she was cut off by the classroom phone. "Yes? What? Really? They'll be right down." She hung up the phone with more force than she needed. "You two are wanted in the office."

"Good old. Mrs. Powers." I chuckled. Nothing got by her.

"It's _Principal_ Powers, young man." The teacher corrected as Parker and I left the classroom. She yanked the door closed behind us, and we headed toward the staircase.

"You're losing your touch kid." I told her as we reached the bottom of the steps. She had been completely surprised when I yanked open the door.

"My feet can't reach the ground in those desks." She said sadly.

I patted her on the head before opening the door to the main office. The secretaries, who had yelled at me earlier, gave me the evil eye. "We have an appointment with _Principal_ Powers."

"Go right in." One of the old ladies croaked.

Parker skipped in front of me, into an office she has seen too much of for an eight year old, and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Principal Powers' desk.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked as I sat down.

"Hmm, I'm not sure." She joked. "Was it the fact that a super-powered individual fell from the sky, unhurt, or that you're the only person who's ever made my secretaries scream that loud?"

"I'd go with the latter. They never did like me much."

"Though they liked you much better once you graduated." She said, her face, so much like her sister's, crinkled with laughter. "Now, how is my sister doing?"

Principal Powers, of Maxville Elementary, was the sister of Principal Powers, of Sky High. Much like her sister, she was a Hero class graduate, with the power to sense other super-powered individuals. She had been the principal of the elementary school for the last twenty years, and had used her abilities to help the kids who were just coming into their powers, myself included. The first day I came to school with my new powers, she was quick to call me into her office and explain that the other kids would not think me being able to poke the teacher from my chair was as amazing as I thought it was.

I could never thank her enough for that.

"She's a little shaken up, but until this morning, she was doing quite well." I informed her.

"Well, since I wasn't given a warning about your visit, fill me in on the details."

"A friend of mine was kidnapped. I need Parker's help to track her down and get her back."

"I don't think I can condone the use of an eight year old in retrieval missions. Did my sister authorize this?"

"Nope." I told her. "She doesn't know. But you know how valuable Parker's powers are for a situation like this. Not only can she find Kira, but she can help get her out and away without any problems."

"THEY TOOK KIRA?" Parker screamed, and began running out of the office. I snaked my arm out and grabbed the back of her shirt before she could reach the end of the administrative hallway. I sat her back down in her chair.

"You can wait ten minutes, Parker." I told her as she huffed and crossed her arms. "So, can I take her?"

"Your parents would kill me."

"They don't need to know. I promise she'll be safe, and back in school by the end of the day."

"If I don't see you, there is nothing I can do." She said forcefully.

"What?" I asked.

She took a pen from a mug, dropped it under her desk, and bent over to pick it up. She didn't surface. I took the hint and dragged Parker from the room. We were only a foot outside the front door when she created a hole in the ground.

"Parker! Not in broad daylight!" I scolded. "Close it up."

"Fine." She grumbled and closed the hole. "That house is empty."

"Good, then lets go borrow their backyard." We ran across the street, and I took Parker under my arm and hopped the fence. She kicked off her shoes, and squatted like a frog in the middle of the lawn; with her hands and feet flat against the ground.

I took out the scrap of paper with the address, and tried to picture the street in my mind. It was near the park, which made sense, if they wanted the upper hand in the drop. "She's somewhere near Jefferson Park. I don't think she'd have left a trail there." She sat there, completely silent, for what felt like a lifetime. Every fiber of my being was telling me to go now and save Kira, but I knew I had to wait.

"She feels weird." Parker muttered, about 15 minutes later, so low I could barely hear her.

"What?"

"She's there. But she feels weird. She's lying down on the floor, but it's fuzzy."

"Let's go, Gaia." She beamed at the name. "Underground."

She stood up and grabbed my hands. The earth beneath our feet dropped about two stories. "Oops."

"Oops? What oops?"

"I might have cut a few wires."

"That's not our problem, are we low enough now to avoid wires, and sewers?"

"We should be."

"Then let's go." Parker closed up the earth above us, and opened a tunnel in front of us. The platform of earth we were standing on started flying forward, and I sat down to avoid getting my head chopped off. I always hated this part of the travel. Parker only made her tunnels large enough for her, and she never started chopping away the earth until it was ten feet in front of your face. And when you're flying at close to thirty miles an hour, that gets pretty scary.

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

"Parking garage." Parker screamed. "Hold on."

Instead of going down, like I expected, we kept going forward, but at a faster pace. Parker spread her arms above her head, then brought them down in a fast clap in front of her face. The stone in front of us blasted backward, and we were thrown into the light. I never released my grip on Parker as we went flying through the air. I got tossed into a support beam, and we crashed onto the floor.

I groaned as I picked myself up off the ground. "What the hell?"

"Sorry, it was too deep for me to drop us under." Parker said as she stood up. "What is that stupid ringing?"

"That would be a car alarm." I said as I noticed a pretty little Benz sitting under a pile of rubble. "We should probably leave before security gets here, but fix that first."

"You're no fun."

"Citizen won't like you if you damage all their stuff." I told her as she put all the rubble back into the wall.

"How do you expect me to fix the car?"

"Some things can stay damaged, now come on." I grabbed her forearm and dragged her to the other side of the parking garage. She clapped another hole into the wall, and I lifted us in. She made another earth-platform for us to ride on, but I stopped her before she got her tunnel going. "Are there any other parking garages in our way? Look before we start moving."

"None. We're branching right from here, out of downtown."

"Good." I said as we took off again. It took another ten minutes or so before Parker started to slow. When the platform finally came to a halt, she filled in the tunnel we left behind us.

"Where is she?"

"Right above our heads."

"Is she alone?" I asked as I took out my cellphone and illuminated the area.

"No. There are a lot of others directly above us, and more spread out in the general area. They're all sitting down on the ground, and they're all fuzzy." Parker said.

"How many are directly above our heads, with Kira?"

"Eight, including Kira. It seems like four boys, and four girls, unless the girls are really thick." Parker said. "There are some other people walking around. A giant rock thing just left."

_Giant rock thing? _"Okay. What are they sitting in? Are there walls?"

"There are support for walls, but if they are surrounded by walls, they're made out of plastic, since I can't sense them."

"Then wait until it is just the eight of them, and do your magic."

"It's not magic, stupid." Parker said as she increased the size of the space we were in until it was a large empty square. I stumbled a bit as the platform we were standing on thrust into the back corner of the underground room.

"What was that for?"

"Getting hit on the head by a giant rock hurts." Parker shook her head, like I had asked her what color the sun was. She extended her arms, straight up, and grabbed onto what appeared to be invisible handles. She pulled.

* * *

Waking up was not fun. My eyes were still too heavy to open, and I couldn't summon the strength to move my body, besides the occasional twitch. I was stiff, and groggy, and cold.

Why in the name of Hell was I cold?

I forced my eyes opened and looked at the sight around me. The others were all starting to wake up as well, except for Kira, who was tied down in the center of what appeared to be a cell, lying in a small puddle of blood. Will, who was across from me, was the only other one who looked functional.

"She's still breathing. Head wound." He muttered, his unnaturally loud words sounding like they were traveling through water.

"I'm cold."

"We have no powers." Will informed me.

"Makes sense." I said as I tried to light my arms.

Not even a spark. I tried to free myself from the shackles, but my muscles wouldn't cooperate.

"It's no use, just get the others up and running, will you?" I heard a voice call from me left. I looked through the plastic wall of the cell to see a girl, a few years younger than me, looking bored. "Wake them."

"Why?"

"We might need them later."

"We're locked up."

"You never know what might happen."

"And how long have you been here, Rachel?"

"About six hours."

"Thought so." Will said as he banged the back of his head against the wall, "Shut up."

"Cranky."

"Can it!" One of the guards said as he strolled by the cell. He looked at us like we were caged rats, awaiting our first dose of experimental drugs.

"Can you at least wake her up? The guy bashed her pretty hard." Rachel, I think that's what Will called her, asked. I checked out all my muscles, and forced myself into a position where my butt was on the ground. I stretched my legs out in front of me and nudged Kira. I gave up after about five minutes of poking and prodding.

"Lash." Will yelled, as if he had just seen the conveniently missing teen.

"Wha?" I heard Kira mumble. Son of bitch.

"What are you screaming about?" The same guard who walked by before yelled back.

"Rash! Your breath gave me a rash!" Will replied.

I prodded Kira again, but she refused to stir.

"Stop yelling." Magenta mumbled. I looked around to see that most of the group had begun to open their eyes, except Anna, who was still sprawled out on the ground next to Ethan, who was shaking her shoulder violently.

"Give it a rest, Popsicle, she'll wake up soon. No use dislocating her shoulder."

"You don't get it. She inhaled a lot of that stuff as a guinea pig, who knows what it did to her."

"I think you inhaled too much of it. You know that's Anna, right?"

"I know." He said as she began stirring. When she regained enough of her mind to realize she was being held captive, she started shrieking. It only got worse when she opened her eyes fully, and saw Kira.

"I'm sorry, you were right, I'm so sorry!" She shrieked, over and over, until Ethan finally got her to shut up.

Freshmen.

"How did they knock out you two?" Magenta asked sourly, looking at Will and I. I shrugged.

"What? You thought we couldn't take down a couple of high schoolers?" A familiar woman's voice asked, her tone disbelieving.

I looked up, and forced the contents of my stomach to stay there, as she continued speaking. "Hi kids. I hope you enjoy your stay with us for the next few hours."

"Ms. Devuex?" I growled.

"At your service. You kids are so predictable. Always saving each other instead of looking out for yourselves. Stupid, weak children." She spat. "That will change, after we take down the rest of them. Our little bait worked so well, now the rest of the day will be a cake walk, with you guys missing."

"That's all this was? You just got us out of the way so you can go do what? Hurt the school?"

"Hurt the school? Never. Today, we're claiming it for ourselves, and we're not making the same mistakes that idiot, Royal Pain, did."

"What mistakes did she make?" Magenta asked, in an attempt to keep her talking.

"She was patient. Why wait years to retrain the kids, when you can reprogram them in a matter of seconds? She was useful, for a while, but she had always been an annoying child." Ms. Devuex said. "Though I digress. Now, since we have all of you locked tightly in here, devoid of power, we'll be on our way."

"Not all of us." Anna muttered.

"What was that?" Ms. Devuex turned back toward us, her eyes like slits. "Oh, you mean Lash. Did you actually think he was on your side? Stupid, stupid children. He's already in place, waiting to finish the plan. You don't have a chance." She surveyed the group, her eyes focusing on Kira for a bit longer than any of us would have liked. She clapped her hands, and one of the guards rushed to her side. She whispered something in his ear, barely audible, but I was able to make out "Ten...minutes...Larry...break it."

She turned sharply and left the dungeon. Half of the guards, including the one she talked too, followed her out, the others stayed.

"I knew that bastard couldn't be for real." Zach said.

"She's lying." Anna proclaimed.

"Why would she? You know people don't change like that."

"She's lying." Anna said again. "Lash would never do anything to Kira."

"Anna."

"Lash. Would. Never."

"Zach, look at who you're arguing with." I said dryly.

"Oh." He said as he realized the extent of Anna's words.

"I get that Lash loves the girl, but you heard what she was saying. Instant reprogramming. They can probably make him do whatever the hell they want." I said as Kira's foot began to twitch. Her groan sent shivers down my spine.

After Kira slowly pulled herself into awareness, the guard returned, followed by a familiar, dorky shape.

"Son of a bitch!"

"I would appreciate it if you people would stop calling my mother a bitch." Larry retorted. The guard opened our cell door for him, and he walked right in.

"What are you doing here?" Layla asked.

"Following some last minute orders." He said.

"Leave Larry." Kira muttered.

"You can't boss me around, girl. Like I said, you should have died while you had the chance." With that, Larry morphed into his alter ego, the large, rock monster which had gained him the respect of the Hero class. He walked over to Kira, and raised his right monster foot. He brought it down on top of Kira's wrist in one crushing blow. She screamed as the tracking device shattered, along with, what I could assume was her wrist. Will and I both tried to get at the kid, but our shackles held us tightly. Larry turned back into his puny self, and laughed as he walked out of the cell, completely ignoring all of their screams.

While they watched him leave the dungeon in triumph, I was watching Kira, in horror, as she sat up, looked at her obviously broken wrist, and laughed. She was still laughing as the floor fell out from beneath us.


	17. That You Don't Move

**A/N: I'm leaving for college on the 22nd. I vow to get this damn story done by then.**

**Thank you everyone who's still reading!**

**Disclaimor: I don't own Sky High, and I don't profit from this story. Nor do I own/profit from the titles of chapters 10-end**

* * *

I could feel my new found power coursing through my veins as we fell through the floor. The last bits of my logical mind told me that when the tracking device shattered, the pinch I felt was the invincibility serum being shot into my body. Knowing that should have alarmed me, but I was okay. Alarm was not currently on my emotional spectrum.

"Kira?" I vaguely heard someone ask as we started zooming away. I was picked up, quite awkwardly since my right arm was still shackled to the ground, and was fiercely hugged. "Why are you laughing?"

I couldn't answer. Laughing just felt right. Besides, why shouldn't I laugh? Nothing could touch me.

"Crayola?" I heard the other voice as the hugger let me go. I couldn't see anything, but I was pretty sure it was the flameman talking. "Please stop. You're scaring us."

I was about to say good, when I realized that these were my friends. I shouldn't scare them.

"Sorry." I managed to squeeze out through the laughter. "Put me down."

The hugger let me go, and as I sat back down on the floor, I pulled my arm from its shackle. I heard it break, and once my hands were free I flexed my fingers. My left arm didn't seem to be working, but that was okay. I was fine. What's one arm?

I stood up, and shrugged off the hands that tried to help me. It was too dark. I could fix that. In between my hands, I formed a light ball, and giggled as the others tried to cover their eyes. They called themselves super heroes, yet they couldn't stand a little bit of light. Pathetic.

"Kira? Come on kid, tone it down and speak to us." Elastoboy said.

Eventually, I did make the light ball a little less bright, and I was able to see the worried faces of everyone around me. Someone was missing.

"Where's Rachel?"

"In her cell."

"Get her."

"But we're already so far–"

"Get Rachel." It was hard to sound forceful when I was still giggling, but the angry colors of my light ball seemed to be enough to convince them I was serious. The platform stopped when Elasto went over to the girl and grabbed her shoulder.

"What?" She asked.

"Will is going to take you back to basement and you're going to pick up Rachel. She was in the cell next to ours, on the left."

"I am?" Will asked.

"Yes, you are."

"How? We're still locked in."

They were still locked in? Silly kids. "Why are you guys still locked up?"

I guess it was okay that they didn't answer me right away. Maybe their minds just weren't strong enough to go through the kidnapping deal. I let my light ball hang in the air, and walked over to Strongman. I grabbed his right shackle with my good hand and crushed it, then did the same with the other. He flexed his wrists, and quickly broke all the others' bonds.

"Kira?" I turned as Elastoboy called me. "How did you do that?"

"I'm Strongman now." I mumbled. "Go get Rachel."

Elasto grabbed me by the shoulders. "Don't touch me." I growled, but he didn't relinquish his hold. "And go get Rachel. Now."

Elasto nodded to Strongman and the girl, and they took off back down the shaft.

"Kira, it's me, Lash. You know that, right?"

I nodded.

"So what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm perfect." He looked into my eyes, then tried to pry open my mouth. I punched him in the shoulder, and giggled a bit as he flew off the platform. His hands shot out and latched onto Flameman, and he pulled himself back before the other guy could throw him off.

"You're high." He stated.

"On what?" I heard one of the others ask.

"Life?" I suggested.

"Me." Strongboy said as he returned, with the little girl and Rachel in tow. "When your tracker broke, that stuff got injected into you, didn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Elasto asked.

"After she got hurt, Medulla came to me and borrowed some of my blood. Said it was for some temporary invincibility thing he was working on. He must have put it in the tracker for Kira. I never put it together that the two things could be connected."

"What are we going to do with her?"

"Do with me? I'm not some invalid. I'm fine. Beyond fine. And I'm going to fight."

"You're going to stay out of the way until this stuff gets out of your system."

What was wrong with them? Why couldn't they just believe I was fine?

"You're all lame." I announced as I made myself vanish. Before I could jump off the platform I was tackled by an unmovable force. "Gerroff."

"No." Strongman said.

"You're mean." I tried to push him off, but he wouldn't budge. I made myself visible again.

"Kira, you're just going to have to stay there until we reach Sky High, okay?" Elasto said. He walked over to the little girl who had once again begun propelling the platform. They spoke in low tones, then we stopped moving. A hole opened up above us and our platform filled the gap. With the sun now shining on us, I let the light ball dissipate. I tried to get up, but Strongman kept me pinned down. I turned my head until my eyes found the Flowerchild. "Why are you allowing this?"

She looked at me like I was a little wilted flower she was just trying to protect. It was disgusting.

I grabbed Strongman under the armpits, and threw him off me. They wanted to go to Sky High? I'd just meet them there. I got to my feet and jumped. I only made it a few feet before someone grabbed my ankle and forced me down. I looked into Elasto's worried face and shook my head. "What's wrong with you people?"

"Nothing, sweetie. Nothing's wrong. If you want to go to Sky High that bad, we'll take you there."

"Of course we have to go. We need to stop Shifter. She's crazy." I told them.

"She's not the only one." Glowy muttered.

"Kira, we'll take you up there if you make all of us, and the rock we're floating on, invisible. Can you do that?"

"Of course I can." I said as I made all of us disappear.

"Good. Now hold on people. Parker, take us up a few feet. Then you take over, Will."The platform shook a bit as we flew up about ten feet. Will cause the rocky earth to bounce when he jumped off the platform and soon we were hurtling up into the sky.

I went to go help Strongman, but Elasto refused to let go of me. "You can't fly yourself there, Kira."

"Yes I can, and I would if you'd just let me go." I grabbed onto the section of arm that was wrapped around my chest and started to squeeze. I could feel his arms resist my power, using his own to counter my strength. I squeezed harder.

"Kira, babe. Please stop. Please." He whimpered.

"I'm going to fight. I'll lead you all to victory."

"Sure, just let go." I released him. Wimp.

I was about to go help Strongman when the school came into view. Even though we were still hundreds of feet away, I could see various shapes creeping around the school grounds. Shapes that weren't supposed to be there.

"Okay everyone, shut up. We're going silent until Parker gets us up there and into a safe, underground room where we can plan the rest of the mission." Elasto said. I heard him whisper something to the little girl as we came within a hundred feet of the school. The earth beneath us dropped a little when Strongman stopped supporting the platform and joined us on top. The girl moved us until we were behind the actual school building, hovering over a small grassy area. I heard two small thumps before we were all falling. We landed on a hard, flat surface, a floor of dirt in a room of dirt, about fifteen feet underground. I let us all be visible again right before the sky above us vanished, replaced with a ceiling of dirt to make the room complete.

"Ow." Someone, Flameman I think, said. "Nice landing kid."

"I'm eight." Parker said defensively. "Kira? Can we have some light?"

The glow worm beat me to it, and soon the room was filled with a pale green light.

"So what's the plan?" Glowy asked.

"I say we split up into three groups, find all the non-infected students and get them to help find the kid, and take her down. It should be easy, she'll be the only little girl running around the school."

"How do you take down the kid if you can't touch her?"

"Anyone have a pair of gloves?" Magenta asked.

"The kitchen!" Glowy said.

"What?"

"The kitchen ladies wear gloves. If we can get to the cafeteria and get them, then all of us can grab the girl. We don't have to wait for Lay or Parker to trap her, since they're the only ones with powers to grab her without touching her."

"I can take her down." Rachel said.

"But you still can't touch her. It won't do us any good if you put her to sleep, only to have her cronies take her away before we can grab her."

"Okay, okay." Elasto said. "First thing first, we'll go to the cafeteria and get some gloves, all invisible of course. Then we'll find those who aren't infected to help us out, and those who are, we'll take out."

"Sounds good." Will said. "But will we be able to walk into the cafeteria undetected? Can't we use Parker to get there?"

"To many pipes." Parker said. "If we came in from underground, we definitely wouldn't 

be undetected. Besides, I'm tired."

"Then Kira will make me invisible and I'll go get gloves for everyone." Will announced. It was a good idea, and I took away his color. "Uh, Parker?"

She opened up a hole in the ceiling just big enough for Will to fly through, and then he was gone.

"So I have a question." Layla announced. "What if he gets caught? Changed? What then?"

"Par–"

"I already made a secondary room below us. If something barges in the ceiling, so long as you guys don't freak out and move, I can pull you down safely."

"That's nice and all, but how would we know if he was changed?" Flameman asked.

"We don't." Lash said at the same time I spoke.

"I can tell."

"How?"

"I can." I insisted. I could tell, why didn't they get that? I could do anything.

"Okay, girl." Magenta said. "Whatever you say."

"We need a test." Glowy said.

"If he comes back normal, with the gloves, then I think he's fine. Their method is all about brute force and control, not schemes and traps." Elasto reasoned. Most of the group nodded their heads in agreement.

Parker looked up at the ceiling. "He's back."

Elasto nodded and Parker's hands mimicked twisting open a jar, and a hole formed in the center of the ceiling. As I gave him back his color, the others caught the last few feet of Will gracelessly falling through when the hole closed up. He held up a fistful of gloves in victory. Layla ran over to him, and I covered my eyes as they hugged. When I opened them again Layla was passing around pairs of latex gloves. She hesitated when she got to me.

"Don't worry, I don't need them."

"It's not that, it's your..." She stopped, and merely pointed at my arm. Part of me realized that her concerns were valid, but the rest of me, the me that still felt no pain, rebelled.

"I could wear the gloves if I wanted to, but I don't need them. I won't touch the girl."

"Fine." Layla said, her voice cracking slightly. She passed out the rest of the gloves, then took a seat next to Will.

"Okay everyone, listen up." Flameman commanded. "We'll break off into three groups. Lash and I will both lead a group. Rachel, you'll go with Lash's bunch, and Layla will come with me. You two are our best chances at securing the girl without contact. The rest of you will divide yourselves up accordingly. We need to do this quickly and quietly. Find the non-infected, and get them out of the school as quietly as you can. Parker, you'll be stationed here. Every time a new group gets out of the school, trap them under the ground. It doesn't matter if they're infected or not, got it?" Parker nodded.

"Once the uprising starts, we can assume they're not going to be sneaky. The infected will make themselves known by attacking the others. Take down as many as you can, but spare all the lives that are possible. Under no circumstances are you to kill the students."

"Keep an eye out for students being taken hostage." Lash butted in. "If you see a student being dragged off against their will, chances are they're being taken to the girl. Follow them, and take her out if you can."

"Do not trust any adult. Take them all out." Ethan threw in. The others looked at him, 

startled. "You saw what happened with Shifter. We don't know who's on our side and who's against us. We need to assume they're all against us."

"He's right." Flameman said. "Now let's do this."

Warren and Elasto stood up, and walked to opposite sides of the small room. Layla joined Flameman, as commanded, and Ethan, Anna, and Magenta followed her. Will, Glowy, Rachel, and I joined Lash.

"Kira, you need to stay with Parker."

I was flabbergasted. "What are you talking about? I'm strong. I can take them."

"We need someone to protect her, and you're the best one to do it." Elasto said. "Please, you need to stay here."

"I hate you."

"I know." He turned to face Parker. "Keep a feel out for any unusual activity. Remember, once someone goes outside, bring them underground. And under no circumstances are you to leave this room."

"Okay, Chief."

"Right then, everyone, stay silent once we reach the top. We'll stick together until we get inside. Kira, can you make us invisible?"

I looked at each one in turn, and made them vanish.

Parker opened up the ceiling, and the earth rose from where the two groups had been standing until it reached the surface. The platforms stood there, suspended in mid air, for about thirty seconds before she brought them crashing down and put the ceiling back in place. We sat in silence until I couldn't take it anymore.

"This blows."

"Tell me about it." Parker said.

"You know what would be fun?"

"What?"

"Secret tunnel."

"Secret tunnel?" Her eyes widened.

"Secret tunnel."

* * *

As soon as we were level with the ground I hopped off. I knew Parker wouldn't drop the dirt if anyone was still on it, but she wasn't happy about being left behind. So I hurried. I motioned for everyone to follow my lead toward the school, and then awkwardly put my hand down. No one could see me. Our plan was flawed from the beginning. Awesome.

"Everyone to the front steps." I said. "My group goes right."

"Shut it!" Warren growled back.

I ignored him, and the fact that we weren't ready for this at all, and kept my pace. There was one scout, near the far side of the building, but we ignored him. Scouts could be dealt with later. When we got up the steps, I made my way to the door that had been previously busted and walked through the frame. The crunching of the glass let me know that the others had followed my lead. The halls were completely empty. I quickly hurried down the hallway to the right and stretched my arms from locker to locker. Once I felt all three of my group mates hit my arms, I gathered them in. I felt oddly alert.

"We go, separately, class to class. If there is trouble, knock on the door, the rest of us will come help before you go in. If it's in the clear, go in and get them out, got it?"

"How do we get them to go out if they can't see us?" Rachel asked.

"However you can. Go." I said. As I moved out to the first classroom on my right, I felt Will fly by me. I made a mental note: he'd be the easy one to track down if I needed help.

I peered through the glass window in the door. Just a hero class, going on as usual. Mr. Kim was the teacher, and I was screwed.

I opened the door and walked in. The class all cranked their necks to get a look at nothing. Most frowned.

"Hello? You better have a good reason for interrupting my class, Jason."

"It's not Jason, Mr. Kim. It's Lash."

"Get the hell out of my class son. You weren't welcome when you were a freshman, and you're not welcome now." He threw a piece of chalk in my direction.

"Please sir, you need to get your class out of the building. There's a coup going on. Mrs. Devuex." I stumbled. "Look, there's no time. You need to get yourselves out and onto the front lawn."

"Up to your old tricks again, I see." This time, instead of a piece of chalk, Mr. Kim sent a bolt of lightning my way, over the heads of his stunned students. I flattened myself against the ground, and the bolt struck the door.

"No, it's not me! Mrs. Devuex and Larry and her freaky mind controlling kid!" There was an explosion in the distance, and the ground shook. We waited the customary 10 seconds for Principal's Powers assurance announcement, but there was nothing. I extended my arms to the top of the doorframe and pulled myself up and out of the way as the kids started running out of the room. "Front lawn!" I shouted after them.

"Make sure they get outside, Mr. Kim. Remember Mrs. Devuex, and her army, are the bad guys here."

"I find that very hard to believe, young man. You'll be expelled for this little prank of yours!" Mr. Kim said as he hurried out of the room. I followed. Not as many classes were heading outside as I would've like. I hurried down to the next couple doors, all empty, before I heard an urgent knocking on a locker to my left. Zach had turned on his glow, and I could faintly see his outline by the doorway.

"Look! Stamberg's one of them!" I looked in on the mixed class. None of them were moving but the balding man walking up and down the aisles. He was moving his hands as if he was explaining something, but his eyes kept darting toward the clock in the front of the room.

"Turn off your glow. If he can see you he can paralyze you." I muttered. I knocked on the locker. "Rachel?"

"What?" She asked as she approached.

"Take out Stamberg."

"I don't have enough power. You guys were already hyped up today. I need to get in there and get the kid's."

"How fast can you siphon?"

"Siphon...I like that." Zach elbowed her. "Sheesh. Fast enough...though I'll need a slight distraction."

"Follow me." I waited until Stamberg's back was to us and threw open the door. I ripped the shades off the windows on the other side of the room as Rachel slipped past me. Stamberg spun around, trying to locate the culprit. I stopped moving, and barely let myself breathe as the feel in the room began to change. Though the kids didn't move an inch, I could tell they were more alert. Stamberg noticed as well.

"Two minutes...come on." He muttered to himself as he raised his hands, poised to release his paralyzing blasts. Suddenly the air pulsed, and Stamberg slumped in on himself, crumbling to the ground. Snores filled the room.

"Good job."

"They're not moving." Rachel said, clearly frustrated.

"Damn. Zach, get Will!" I shouted. I loped over to the windows and opened them all before knocking out the screens. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple of the kids shaking, one by one, but it was only Rachel, trying to rouse them.

"Uh, Rachel? Haven't you shaken Bobby enough?" She gave me a look that could make one of Layla's plants wither, and kept touching the boy.

"What do you...damn" Will said as he flew into the room.

"Zach close the door. Will, get these kids out the window so Parker can hide them until the paralysis wears off."

"Okay."

"Good. You have two minutes. Rachel, make sure you're powered up, and Zach, get ready. There's about to be a fight."

"What are you talking about?"

"You heard Stamberg muttering, didn't you? 2 minutes." My eyes found the clock. 1 minute, really. Will had most of the other kids out of the room, only five remained frozen in their seats.

"Well, how do you know what's going to happen in two minutes? The freak girl could show up, or her cronies, or they could poison the room." Zach said.

"Right. Then go follow the others out the window in case they do poison us, then you can get the others to help."

"Fine." Zach said, obviously mad. I wasn't joking though.

"Will hurry." I said. "Everyone else, brace yourselves." The clock ticked away the last thirty seconds. We were all painfully silent as the last student was flown from the classroom seconds before the door opened.

Principal Powers walked in, closed the door, and surveyed the room. She paused when her eyes landed on Stamberg's sleeping body. None of us dared move.

"Kids? I know you're here. Come out." Her eyes narrowed when we failed to respond. I could feel the air of the room change. They had gotten her. "Fine then." The room filled with a blast of light as Powers morphed into her comet form. I ducked, and hoped the others did the same as she started flying.

"Siphon!" I yelled before rolling toward the windows. The desk that I had been hiding near was pummeled to the ground. Shards of fake wood flew everywhere.

"I can't put a comet to sleep!" The comet charged in the direction of her voice, and her screams echoed throughout the room. Powers charged right through the spot where Rachel's voice originated, and continued through the blackboard into the next classroom.

"Jesus, what do we do?" She asked.

The window all of the kids escaped from began glowing. Zach had lit up the window as began glowing, but instead of being able to see his body like usual, he was just a ball of lime green light. "Into the hall!" He said as he jumped from desk to desk, the ones still standing anyway, until he reached the other side of the room. I stood up and followed him out as he opened the door.

"Don't follow. Go now!" He whispered.

"Thank you." I said sincerely.

"We all play our part." He stood where he was, and I took off down the hall. I could hear Rachel's footsteps as she ran behind me. I made a quick right into the next classroom, a science lab, and flung upon the door. Stealth was no longer a prerogative. The class was empty, probably fled when the fight began next door. I heard another door slam open across the hall, and ran to the noise. That classroom was empty as well.

"Rachel!"

"Ow!" She said, from right next to me, "What?"

"Do you mind if I carry you?"

"To the gym?" She asked, a step ahead of me. Her reasoning was good. The others had, hopefully, taken care of the other hallway. The gym was the next closest place that would have a large group of students. "Go ahead."

I wrapped my arms around her waist and hoisted her over shoulder. I loped down the hall, stretching my legs to the maximum to go as fast as possible. Instead of going directly into the gym, I made a quick turn and barged into the boy's locker room.

"What are you doing?" Rachel hissed. "I can't be here!"

"Get over it." I checked each row of lockers: nothing but clothes thrown about, and a shoe here or there. Not a soul was around. A small crash made me turn, but Rachel assured me she had only tripped over her own feet. Even Boomer's office was empty. I resisted the urge to go in and cause a little mayhem.

"Hey? I think I, um, found something." She muttered hesitantly. Her voice carried over from the shower area. I walked over to the rows of super-showers. They were all closed, and sealed tightly.

"What is it?"

"Come here." Her voice was to my right, at the very last shower. When I bumped into her, I could feel her shaking. From fear, or anger, I couldn't tell.

"There're people in there." She said. "Every single stall is full of sleeping kids, except for this one. And it's not natural. They've been poisoned."

"Can you get them out of it?"

"No. This isn't natural. If I tried to take it, I'd be overcome by it." She said, dismayed. I backed up, and flung my body at one of the doors. I didn't even dent it.

"Gwen is in jail. How did this happen?"

"Either she's in on it, or Shifter used her daughter to get it out of her. Duh." Rachel said, her prolonged 'duh' ended with a low ping.

"Hitting the damned thing won't help." I told her.

"Hit what? I didn't touch it."

I stuck my ear against the cold metal door, and stretched the outer section of my ear to capture more sound. "Be quiet." I told her as I concentrated. Muffled screaming, but definitely screaming.

"Someone's in there. Awake."

"I'll go find Will." She said and ran out into the gym. I went into Boomer's office, and dug out a crowbar he routinely used when the students messed with each other's lockers. The showers were double sided, and there was no electrical panel I could find to rip open. I stepped on top of the showers and immediately shortened myself so I could fit in the three foot space in between the showers and the ceiling. I knew there was no easy way to go about this, so I shoved the crowbar straight down, as hard as I could, forgetting one of the most known facts about 

Major Pain: she liked shocking people.


	18. Frozen still in front of your own lights

**A/N: ALMOST DONE! Just one last chapter after this! Thanks to all of those who are sticking with me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High, nor do I profit from this story. I only own the characters that you don't remember from the movie.**

* * *

"Shut it!" I said to Lash. That idiot was already botching the mission. Any of the scouts outside could have heard, if they had relevant powers. I let him have his fun, and took the hall to the left. I tested out a small fireball, still very visible, and walked to the first door on the left. The fireball faded away when the others joined me.

"This is one of my teachers. I'll go." Ethan said. We could all here the plopping as he puddled down.

"I wish I could see you right now, Layla." Anna muttered.

I ignored the girls as they began some off-topic discussion and went over to the next classroom. Empty. The next door was the same. I could hear Ethan's group trying to walk quietly toward the front door behind me. I was halfway down the hallway before I found an occupied classroom. They seemed normal enough. I walked in, and their heads all turned to the 'empty' doorway.

Something was very, very wrong. The girl closest to me, an annoying brat in my Power Development class, shot off a round of razor-sharp fingernails in my direction. She aimed low, and I jumped, but at least half of them sliced through my shoes and cut my toes. I stopped impressed, despite myself for a second before I retaliated with a fireball the size of her head. The girl ducked, and as soon as the fireball passed her head it turned into a balloon.

"Goddamnit Cherie!" I snarled as I rolled out of the doorway, narrowly missing "attacks" from the other students. Mr. Boy leapt from his desk, faster than I thought possible, and screamed as he flew at my head. I threw another blast of fire in his direction, which promptly turned into a dozen red balloons.

"We're here!" A tiny voice squeaked from next to my shoe. I prayed that Magenta would either grow, or hide herself as I was rushed by sidekicks. Ten of them piled on top of me, and I did my best to fight them off. I gave Cherie a much needed punch in the face, and she kept trying to get her hands around my throat. I fended her off best I could, and kicked at the ones I was able to reach. I wanted nothing more to light up, but I knew these kids couldn't help trying to kill me.

I heard a screamed, filled with surprise, and the weight on top of me lessened. I counted to three, got a lock of hair ripped from my scalp, and stood up, forcefully propelling the remaining kids off my body. I lit up just in time to see the rest of the kids being dragged out the window by Layla's vines.

"Anna? Ethan?"

"Here." Ethan responded. "Anna?"

Nothing.

"Where is she?"

"Secret mission." Layla said.

"What did you two do now?" I asked. "You're always supposed to stick to the plan."

An explosion rocked the classroom. I dove out of the way as a row of ceiling lights came crashing down. We all counted to ten.

"Crap. What happened to Powers?"

"Hopefully she's busy fighting these assholes." I told Magenta. "Let's go, next class."

I stepped over the fallen lights and made my way into the hallway. Kids were starting to run down the halls. I lit up, causing those closest to me to squeal and jump. "Go out to front lawn! Now!"

"Warren?" I froze. It took ten deep breaths to keep my flames from engulfing my body. "Warren! What's happening?"

"Just get out onto the front lawn. Don't be surprised when the ground eats you. Help the 

little brats." I said, slowly through clenched teeth. She didn't move. "Don't make me hurt you, Linda."

"Asshole." She muttered as she took off. I could almost hear her catty little voice saying _'I'm so not a Linda!'_

When the hallway cleared, I powered down. "Guys?" Magenta, Ethan, and Layla all chimed in with a greeting. "Are we all clear?"

"This hall is empty." Ethan said. "I don't know about upstairs though."

"Then Popsicle, Lay, go upstairs and do recon. Maj, stick with me. We'll go the cafeteria." I waited until I saw the stairwell doors open before heading back down the hall, toward the cafeteria. I had just rounded the corner to the main hallway when a small hand grabbed my jacket and yanked me back.

"What?" I hissed.

"Look!" Maj said. I looked down the hallway, and there was nothing.

"What are you talking about?"

"Down the side hallway, not that one! Where the others went." I turned around and saw the bright, lime green glow that belonged to Zach. He was standing in a doorway, not moving at all, for anyone to see.

"What's he doing?" I asked as the light suddenly dove out of the doorway, got clipped by a comet, and spun out into the nearby lockers. Magenta's scream almost covered the metallic crash. I charged down the hallway, and threw a blast of fire at the comet. It was knocked aside before it could crush Zach. When we reached them, Magenta went right for Zach, and began dragging him down the hallway. Powers flew back around us, and I sent another wave of fire at her. Part of me balked at attacking the principal, but the rest of me just didn't care.

When she came charging after me again, I grabbed onto her, but my hands instantly froze, blocking my power. Another force stopped the comet midflight, and threw us both into the nearest wall. Comet-Powers used my body as a cushion as it flew through wall after wall. After the fifth wall, my anger flared to a point where my hands finally burst through the ice and erupted into flames. I fell to the floor, and Powers was snapped out of her comet form. She hit the next wall and crumpled to the ground. Her upper arms were on fire. I suppressed the flames with my powers before the room could start to smell like burning cotton and flesh. I was a little shaky on my feet, but by the time I heard Will fly in I was standing.

"What the hell?"

"I didn't know you were stuck to her, War. Sorry."

"Did you see where Magenta dragged Zach off to?"

"She got him outside, and Parker sucked him up. He's unconscious, but alive." Will said. "Now let's go." I walked out of the unfamiliar classroom and back out into the hallway.

We had almost reached the cafeteria door when a sentry walked into the hallway. I kept completely still. The sentry was unfamiliar, an older man who was slowly walking down the hall toward us. But his eyes were moving rapidly, looking at every single inch of hallway. As he got closer, I noticed that his eyes were twitching faster than humanly possible. I grabbed Will's arm and started walking him down the hall, as slowly as we could move without being heard. The sentry's strange, quick eyes found us.

"Go!" I shouted as his eyes glowed bright red. Will picked me up and we took off as a blast of red light obliterated the lockers we had been standing next to a second before. The man sent another destructive beam down the hallway after us. Will flew us up to the point where his back was bouncing off the ceiling, and the beam narrowly missed my nose, which quickly picked 

up the scent of burnt hair.

"Go back."

"What are you talking about?"

"Turn around now." He complied, but we didn't move any closer to the sentry. "Drop me or burn."

By the time my feet touched the ground, my entire body was engulfed in my fire. The power was exhilarating; I'd never taken my power to this level before. Never had a need to. The sentry's lethal eyes twitched at my presence, and glowed red once again. I retaliated when he sent another beam at me. My burst of fire met his beam, and it took all of my energy to keep myself standing, and my fire burning. The small strip of hallway where our power met was soon blackened and burned, but neither of us relented. With a surprising boost of energy, and a scream that would make my father proud, I added an extra burst of flame, and started to push the other man back.

Suddenly, the other man's beam vanished, and my power overcame him as fire flooded the hallway. I extinguished the flames as fast as I could, but when my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the hallway, the sentry was nothing more than a blackened skeleton crumpled on the ground. I told myself that it was the speed at which I dropped my powers that made me fall to my knees.

But I was lying.

"War?"

I ignored Will. Someone was crying, and it wasn't the dead guy.

Or me.

When I was sure my feet would hold me up, I walked down the hall, giving the corpse a wide, wide berth. I stopped when I reached the source of the quiet wailing. I sat down, and put my arm around her shoulders. She cried into my shirt.

"Thank you, Rachel."

"I killed him." She said, her voice on the verge of exploding.

"We both did, not just you." I said. She started crying a little harder. "I know this sucks. This really sucks. But we're superheroes, right? We have to kill people." Tears stained my shirt, and my cheeks. I was glad I was invisible. "But we mourn. We regret. That's why we're the heroes. Never forget that." 1

Will approach us when Rachel began to quiet down. "The noise. The fighting. Someone must have heard." He sounded almost apologetic. "We need to get out of here."

I helped Rachel stand up, and we all started down the hallway when she cursed. "Lash!"

"What's wrong?" My voice was empathetic. When did I start giving a damn about him?

"We need to go to the boy's locker room! Now." She commanded. The change in her footsteps' echo told me she was running. I followed, though I briefly paused to wonder why the two were in the boy's locker room. There were other thoughts, but I suppressed them. I refused to start crying now.

Rachel's footsteps led me to the super-showers, all sealed tightly. "Lash?"

No answer.

"I left him here." Rachel said. "It's the showers, they're all full. The kids inside are asleep, but poisoned. I can't wake them. But there's one." She knocked on the very last shower. "He's in here. Awake. We need to get him out."

"What about the others?" Will asked.

"They'll be safer in the showers if they can't be revived." I said. "Will, break it."

"What about Lash?" He asked.

"He'll turn up. He always does." With that, Will's fingers dug into the shower door, and ripped it right off. His hair stood on end as he did it. The boy inside pressed himself against the wall, completely shocked as the steam flooded out of the shower. He wasn't wearing clothes.

"Don't worry kid, it's us. Warren Peace, Stronghold, and Rachel…"

"Wilson. Rachel Wilson." She said.

"Oh thank God! Wait, Wilson? The hot blonde one?" He shouted, and came out of the shower. He was a senior. Sidekick. I couldn't think of his name. I didn't like him. "I've always wanted to be rescued by a hot blonde. I've been shouting for what seems like hours."

"How come you aren't like the rest of them?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"They're asleep. Drugged." She said.

"Oh. My power finally came in handy, I guess. Bout time. I've been waiting four goddamn years." He laughed a bit, and then filled us in on the joke. "I don't breathe. Or sleep. Or eat. Basically, I'm a vampire without the blood sucking, cool powers, and exploding in the sun. Lucky, aren't I?" He paused. "That thing shot out a puff of pink stuff, instead of shampoo."

"You still here Will?" I asked. He hadn't said a word since he took out the door.

"Yeah, that was a nasty shock though."

"That's nice." I said before turning my attention back to the naked kid. "Do you mind…"

"What?" He looked down at himself, and blushed briefly. "Oh, that. What? It's not like you haven't seen a naked guy before." He walked over to the lockers, where a towel was hanging nearby. I ignored Rachel's mutterings that she hadn't actually seen a naked guy before, and watched him tripped over nothing. He went down hard. I tried to figure out what he tripped over, but there was nothing there. Just some faint smoke.

"Lash!" I ran over to where the kid tripped, and my suspicions were confirmed when I felt his body lying on the floor.

"He must have tried to open it." Will said. "That thing would have fried me if I wasn't, well, me."

I felt around until I found his neck, and was able to locate a pulse. "Alive. Can you wake him, Rach?"

"I don't know. He's unconscious, not sleeping."

"Try." Lash twitched under my fingers. His breathing became labored, but he didn't stir.

"Sorry." Rachel said.

"It's fine. At least it did something." I told her.

"Do you mind if I ask why you're all invisible?" The outsider said as he pulled a towel around himself.

"The school's under attack. Ms. Devuex is trying to take over with her freaky mind-controlling daughter." Will told him. "You might want to leave."

"Right then. Wilson, give me a call when all this is done, alright?" With that he walked out of the locker room, still clad in only a towel.

"I've never liked that kid."

"He has a sense of humor, War. You always need one of those around during tough times." Rachel said. "Now what are we going to do?"

"I'll take Lash out of the school." Will offered. "Kira and Parker can take care of him."

I agreed and stepped away from Lash just in time to see the boy reappear. The damage was worse than I thought. His hair was on end, and his hands were red. Burned into his open 

palms was a thick black stripe. He had probably tried to use Boomer's crowbar. The smoke had been coming from his sleeves, which were singed around his wrists.

I stopped cataloging his injuries long enough to hear the other's frustrated gasps. I turned to look at them, and realized that they were visible as well.

"Well that sucks."

"I wonder what…" Rachel trailed off.

"She's fine. She must be." Will said. "Her powers have been fritzy lately, haven't they been?"

I nodded. "I still don't like it. Will, fly him out of here. We'll go find Layla and Ethan, and make sure they're okay."

Will picked up Lash, and was soon out the door with him. Rachel's nose and eyes were red from her crying bout before, but now they sparkled something sinister.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

"What on Earth happened to your hair?"

* * *

"Secret tunnel is hard work." Parker groaned as we followed her path to another group of students. I ignored her, since the 'hard work' was definitely paying off. I had amassed a decent sized army so far. The first batch was quite useless. None of them could move. I recognized some with good powers, but being frozen was a definite weakness that I couldn't afford in my army. They were left in their room, but Parker shifted it so it was a bit farther away from the school.

The next group was far more promising. At least a hundred kids ran out onto the front green of the school, and as soon as they were over part of Parker's tunnel-maze, she pulled them under. Many jumped on board to help, but some, including most of the teachers, thought it best to head for the hills. I stunned them with my light, and Parker gave them some nice hills to occupy until the battle was over. We couldn't risk anyone from the above-ground to be notified of our plan before we were ready.

A high pitched voice screamed down the tunnel we were forging, coming from the direction of the last group we left. I told Parker to stop, despite the fact that she had trapped two kids just a bit farther ahead.

"Wait!" A girl skated, literally, into view. The ground below her feet was iced over. It was the ice-bitch. "Kira, stop, please!"

"I'm already stopped."

When she reached us she was frowning, probably at my comment. "You have to let me come help."

"Then you should wait with the others. Then once we're ready, you'll see plenty of fighting."

"No, I have to help now. Let me do something?"

"I have it covered. I'm all we need right now."

"But Warren said I have to help! You could at least tell me the plan!"

"You don't deserve to be able to say his name. Go back to the others, help them, and wait for us." She looked ready to argue more. I held up my bad hand, and she froze. "Parker?"

"Done." She said, right before bringing a rock wall up in between us. We started moving toward the two students once again. But when we reached, and broke through, the wall to their room, it was empty.

"Hello?"

"Kira! It's us." Magenta said, her voice shaking. "Zach's hurt."

Parker ran over to an empty corner, and I followed her to the two. "What happened?"

"Powers is crazy. She attacked him."

"Are there any healers down here?" Parker asked.

"No. I'm going to stash you two toward the outer edge of school. Stay there until this is over, and keep an eye on Zach, okay?" I said.

"Wait, you can't just lock us both up somewhere!"

"I'm in charge down here, you'll do what I say." I told Magenta. "Parker, join them with the others."

I distanced myself from the two, and ignored Parker's "She's still a little crazy" whisper as she sent them off. We took a small crack back to the main tunnel, and stopped so Parker could rest.

"Is there anyone up there?"

"Just one. A big guy, kind of worried."

"How do you know that?"

"He's pacing."

"How close to the edge?"

"Very." My eyes lit up. This would be an easy one.

"Kick him off." I commanded.

She said nothing for a moment.

"But what if he can't fly?" The words finally rushed out of her lips.

The 't' on the end of that word startled me, and nearly brought me to my knees and out of my powercloud. I had just asked an eight year old to kill someone. Parker turned away as my breakfast came back up. "Let's go back to the kids."

We walked back down the tunnel, and through the wall Parker brought up to keep Melinda away. When we reached the students, they all clamored toward us, with Melinda in the lead. "We demand you tell us the plan." She started. "We won't help unless we know."

"Fine." I said. No one shut up. "QUIET!"

"Soon we will take back the school. A third of us will go in the front, a third in the back, and a third on the roof. If someone attacks you, take them out. Don't kill. Most of them can't help what they're doing. If you see a little blond girl, avoid her. She's the one who's taking over their minds. If she touches you, you're done. If you can take her out without touching her, do it. You do not, I repeat, do _not_ attack my group. Peace, Stronghold, Ethan, Anna, Lash, Layla, and Rachel are not infected. They're invisible at the moment, so if you run into something, don't go after them unless they go after you. So you know who not to attack, I'll make all of your shirts green. Any questions?"

No one had anything left to say, and they all formed a neat, single-filed line. I turned every single shirt the same shade of green as a city traffic light, and added an R, F, or B in blue to alternating kids, symbolizing which attack group they'd been in. I felt Parker tug on my arm, but I just waved her off as I worked on kid after kid. A girl didn't follow the others when I finished with her shirt. I looked up to say something, but the concern in her unfamiliar eyes stopped me.

"Do you want me to fix that arm?" She asked, reaching for me. I flinched away.

"No. Save your power for later." I did the shirts of the last few kids as I spoke. "Do you know Magenta and Zach?"

"Yeah."

"Zach's hurt. Go find him and help him instead." I paused. "Parker, can you move them 

here?"

"I did that right after we found them." She said, happy to have ignored me earlier, before running off again.

"Are they still invisible?" The healer asked. "I bumped into Magenta earlier."

I nodded, and held up a finger as I finished the last shirt. I focused my mind on Magenta and Zach, and visualized them in color, their invisibility slowly lifting. I felt the strain of constant power being lifted off of me. It was refreshing, but strange. Using my powers had never been so draining. The healer-girl must have found them, since she took off running behind me.

Parker grabbed at my arm again. She looked exhausted, and was shaking. "What is it?"

"None of the big guys will hold me."

"What are you talking about?"

"There are so many people here, all walking along the pure ground. There are too many vibrations, but none of them will carry me so I can take a break." She paused. "Why are you so bright?"

"No reason." I lied curbing my anger. I didn't trust Parker with anyone but Lash and myself. I sat down on the ground, and motioned for her to sit on my lap. She happily sat down, and I was glad she was tiny. "Better?"

"Much." She stopped shaking as much, though her feet were still very twitchy. I stole the light that I had seeped around the room, and gathered it all in a ring around Parker and I. The nervous chatter stopped so suddenly that Parker began to giggle.

"Can you raise us up a bit?" I whispered to her, and the rock we were sitting on pushed itself into a pillar about 4 feet high. "I'm assuming you're all in your respective groups. You have five minutes before we begin our raid. Seniors, you are now the commanding officers. Gather together and make a game plan that best fits. Utilize everyone's powers. Once we get you where you need to go, you're on your own, except for the front team. I'll be joining you there. You have the basic instructions that you must follow, but after that, just get the damn job done. The Roof group will deploy first. Parker will send you up, and I'll make you invisible until you hit the roof. Once you're up there, you're on your own. You'll have 2 minutes before the ground forces go in."

"So is everyone ready?" I sounded unsure, and their response mimicked mine.

"She said are you ready to save your damn school!" Melinda shouted from the darkness. Cheers roared in from every corner of the room, and I shushed them, fearing they could be heard above us.

Suddenly, Parker reached upward, latched onto thin air, and pulled. The room quieted again. "It's Will! Lash too?" She said.

I threw the light back around the room, and stood up, careful not to dump Parker on the floor. She grabbed my hand, and took off running. I tired quickly, though my excitement, and the speed demon dragging me, kept me going. I couldn't see a damned thing, but I trusted Parker to keep the floor clear. We made it about three quarters of the way down the tunnel before she created a new path off to the left. I was wheezing.

"It's not far! He flew down about a foot away from the actual building, so we just have to get to the other side." Her words were not encouraging, but I kept going until we reached a dead end. Parker lifted her arms, and the wall slid down into the earth as she lowered her hands.

Will was standing there, looking nervous as hell, with Lash in his arms.

Lash was not moving.

My legs sagged, but I forced myself to run to the boys. Will winced as I neared, but later 

I realized it was because of my screaming.

"He's alive!" Will said when I reached them. I gasped in relief, though part of me didn't believe the good news. I hugged Lash as tightly as I could, which was very awkward since he was still being held by Will, and my arm was still unmovable below the elbow. Still, I grabbed his hand, and refused to let go.

"What happened?" Parker asked.

"Nasty shock from the showers took him out. Is there a healer down here? He really needs one." Will said.

"Parker?" She created a platform from the rock we were standing on and soon we were flying back down the tunnel. Will, thankfully, hovered just above the platform and flew along with us, giving Parker a break.

When we reached the main room, I heard Will curse in amazement. The three groups were all huddled anxiously, with the seniors dealing out responsibilities, when we arrived. The planning died down when we were noticed, and completely ended when they saw Lash. A single form made a mad dash to us: Healer Girl.

Will gently laid Lash onto the ground, and I sat down next to him, hand still clutching his. The girl went to work.

"Will, you go with the roof group. They have "R"s on their shirts." He nodded, and started walking over before I stopped him. "Wait! Why can I see you?"

"We all lost our invisibility. Did something happen to you?"

"No, I just took off Magenta and Zach's. Yours must have come off with theirs! Shit!" I took a second to think. "Roof group needs to move now. Parker fill him in, and get them going. I'll be over in a second."

"No worries." Melinda came over and grabbed Will. He flinched, then she did. "We have a kid that can help us go by unnoticed. Stay with him."

The Roof group got going as I watched the healer fix Lash. Her powers weren't visible, but I could tell from the way his face regained its color that it was working. The smell of burnt flesh was also receding.

It was another few minutes before she took her hands off him.

"He'll live. I fixed his organs, and head, and a few of his burns, but I can't do anything else. He needs to wake up on his own. That's a good thing." She finished, slightly puzzled by my crying.

"I know." I said as I began humming. Parker joined in when she got back to us. When we finished the chorus, she grabbed my shoulder.

"The other groups need to move. Roof is in."

"Stay here with Lash, got it?" I asked, and she nodded. I let go of his hand, but mine was quickly replaced by Parker's. I gave him a small kiss on the lips and went over to the Front and Back groups.

I motioned for them all to follow me, and lead them back down the secret tunnel. When we reached the first side tunnel, I called out the Front leaders. After I instructed them how to get their group up to the surface, and that the wall was perfectly safe to climb, I led the Back group farther down the main tunnel. I relayed the same message to this group as we veered off into a side tunnel. I instructed their leader to go up the wall first, and push open the hinged piece of ground that Parker hardened. After he was up, and in the open air, I followed. The rest of the group came up one by one, and I sent every group of five into the building through the back door of the kitchen. I went in with the last group after carefully closing the hatch.

Groups of students ran everywhere. It was as if 'covert' wasn't in their language. They were screaming, flying around as if they owned the place. That was good though, the first level seemed to be secure. I hurried over to the nearest staircase, and nearly crashed into Warren and Rachel on the way up. Warren pulled me into a quick hug.

"You're okay!" Rachel said.

"You're visible?"

"We were planning on asking you about that one." Warren said.

"I really don't know. Must have happened when I filled in Maj and Zach." Part of the Front group jostled passed us on the stairs.

"Friends of yours?"

"Thought you could use some backup." I said. "What ever happened to Powers?"

Rachel and Warren looked at each other. "I'll go drag her to the detention room." Rachel said, and ran down the stairs.

"What else have you guys found?"

"We're assuming the bad guys are held up somewhere in the admin offices, or the top floors." Warren said. "The ground floor is clear. Ethan and Layla are doing recon upstairs…no sign of the girl yet. What are you looking at?"

"Nothing."

The stairwell shook. "Downstairs or up?" I asked.

"Up. Definitely up." Warren said, and we ran.

* * *

1. So i had to say something about this line. I considered cutting it out, since I loved it so damn much, and save it for another story, but I just couldn't. It fit too perfectly. And that's the end of me being incredibly sappy/weird.


End file.
